July 2023 Random Game Thoughts Thread

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Decided to write my own little review of Super Bunny Man.



Super Bunny Man

Developer: Catobyte

Release Date: May 15th 2023 (Early Access September 1st 2017

Super Bunny Man came along to ask the question no one thought to ask. What happens when you take the precise platforming levels of Super Meat Boy, and force a man in a bunny costume that hops around like a drunken pogo stick to navigate them.

Surprisingly, the answer is good fun.

Super Bunny Man is a physics based platformer presented in bite size levels, creating the perfect amount of challenge for a dabbling masochist or limited time gamer looking for a “Getting Over It-like” without the commitment.

With a title screen that features four grown men in colored bunny suits raving to a bouncy synth pop masterpiece, Catobyte does not bury the lead. Super Bunny Man wears its silliness on its bunny suit sleeve.

The single player campaign consist of 50 unique levels of varying difficulty divided among five differently themed worlds. Each level is a short obstacle course of gaps, pits, spikes, boulders and less typical platforming nouns like jet skies, snowmen, flame throwers, and wiener mobiles. Most levels take less than a minute to complete, many less than 20 seconds even, however, that doesn’t mean there is less than an hour of gameplay. While early levels will provide something of gentle onboarding, later levels will test your mechanical knowledge and patience. Add in additional challenges of a par time, and a giant carrot hidden on every level to grab and drag to the ending portal and there’s easly 5 to 10 hours of solo game play depending on your commitment.

Failure is an option.

While Bunny Man apes Meat Boys short levels, it goes in the exact opposite direction when it comes to controls. You can jump, grab, and move, and that’s basically it. Unlike other platforming protagonists, Super Bunny Man does not run. Rather the analog stick causes him to tip over and roll like an obese Sonic character. Jumping is the main mode of transportation, sending Super Bunny Man flying across the screen. By tipping him left or right with the analog stick you can control the angle of his jump and distance and gain height and speed with multiple successive jumps.

While difficult at first, the simple mechanics of Super Bunny Man are grokable, and surprisingly deep. After 7 hours I had completed every stages par time and I felt a complete general mastery of the early levels with a kind of satisfaction I got starting a second character in Dark Souls and not dying for the first several hours.

The goal is so close, yet so far.

That doesn’t account for clumsiness however. The low barrier of return with short levels and chaotic environments lead to careless and impatient decisions. For every smooth, precise jump I’d misjudge an angle of attack, or tumble just a little to far after a fling just because I wanted to keep moving quickly.

The result is a pogo stick of a man grunting as he leaps head first into a spike pit, then resetting the level and leaping head first into the same spike pit again, and laughing both times.

Along with single player there is also a local co-op mode. The levels are exactly the same, but thanks to the chaotic element of a second bunny man can be far more difficult. While there are some interesting new tactics two players can exploit, they can also provide a massive obstacle for one another. One wayward kick can send your friend flying across a difficult gap just as easily as it can launch them into a sea mine. At the same time, you’ll discover situations that would call for a restart in single player that can be salvaged by your co-op partner, creating moments of triumph and explosive celebrations.

Super Bunny Man wastes no time mounting a snowman.

More of the same can be said about the local multiplayer modes, Deathmatch, Basketball, and Carrot Grab, each one a different experience where skill, physics and luck collide.

Super Bunny Man is the kind of fun you get when you take a game like Getting Over It and strip out 90% of the frustration. It’s easy to learn, difficult to master, amazing as a co-op experience, and will reward you with an enjoyable experience for whatever length of time you chose to commit to it.

4 grown man in a bunny suit grunts out of 5.
 
I'm completely enthralled by the new Craftopia. I loved the old game, and now everything has been improved 100 percent. We were even defeated by a boss, which never happened in the old one, so they've made some good balance changes, added some challenge to it. And the world is so, so much better. If you had asked me before playing the new version whether they should have started over from scratch, I'd have said "no" but I would have been wrong. Nice job, developers!
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
Well, there are QTEs and there are QTEs....

I think I'm falling into the Skyrim trap with Midnight Suns. You can do a story-advancing mission every other mission, but I'm doing four or five optional (randomly created) missions instead.
 
Finally found someone to moderate the Minecraft Facebook group I started and immediately regretted. We've only got 522 members, but I prefer to never go to Facebook anymore, so 1 member is too much. But I didn't want to just close it down, either, since people were using it. Now I pledge to check in once a month just to make sure we haven't turned into a white supremacist Minecraft group with my name on it. This moderator seems very enthusiastic and not particularly crazy, so I think we're in good hands.

Actually, I think that I have the option just to leave the group entirely now. I'm almost giddy with excitement. Need to double verify that my quitting won't close the group.
 
4 hours into hollow knight and i'm having a great time. The game plays well, the game looks good and the world elicit's more emotions then darkwood did. mainly a proud feeling of sadness seeing so many various things lose their minds going into the depths and the dilapidated world. So just as grim as dark souls i guess. haven't died yet, but still early days as i take my time exploring and getting things done.

Currently in the fungal area and took out the mantis warriors. Was a bit of a shock when i first faced them, but after a few attempts they're a cakewalk. Dangerous in tight corridors, but once you get above them they're finished.
 
Finished FarCry 6. I went about halfway through over a month ago, maybe 2, until it said my save was corrupted when loading into certain missions. Frustrated and not wanting to start over at the time I uninstalled it.

Now coming into July I picked up a 3050 and decided I'd reinstall FC6 and just restart from the start, but before I did I decided to load my old save and it somehow worked. Not gonna ask how, but I decided to continue on from where I was at. Literally just finished it. Fun game, I liked the ending, not gonna spoil anything, but probably the best FarCry I've played. @Brian Boru you talked about this game so much on here I gave it a go and loved it.
 
The new Craftopia is pretty buggy, especially for Guido as the one joining my non-dedicated server. Every time he spawns, he spawns inside the starter cave. He equipped a weapon that crashed his computer. Both of us have clipped through geometry and gotten stuck. We found a boss who didn't fight back. There were a couple of other little things, but the most hilarious one is that Guido keeps spontaneously combusting. Just catches fire. I told him I would be good with this if he emitted light so we could see at night. We're still having fun, though, and the developer is putting out patches in record speed.

******

Lost a massive ship in Cosmoteer, but learned a valuable lesson. My extra focus on the ship's defenses were nice, but you can't stand there and trade blows with someone shooting EMP missiles and tactical nukes. No matter how good your defenses, you better take them out as fast as you can.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
Don't know what that means. These were like a Telltale game's action sequence QTEs. which is as bad as it gets in my book.
The most extreme kind would be the kind we used to see back in the late non-rebooted Tomb Raider games. You would be a minute or two into watching a cutscene then, suddenly, Y!! If you don't press it in half a second, Lara dies, and you have to go back and re-play 10+ minutes. (Obviously, such cutscenes can't be skipped, causing another pet peeve for some people.) When somebody says there's bad QTE, that's what I normally think of.

There's a whole spectrum below that, though, getting progressively less bad. Some only take place in battles, but are still at unpredictable times, like Last Remnant. Or they take place in battles at very predictable times, like in Shadowhearts Covenant. Finally, take away the prompt, and it's just standard action game input.
 
The most extreme kind would be the kind we used to see back in the late non-rebooted Tomb Raider games. You would be a minute or two into watching a cutscene then, suddenly, Y!! If you don't press it in half a second, Lara dies, and you have to go back and re-play 10+ minutes. (Obviously, such cutscenes can't be skipped, causing another pet peeve for some people.) When somebody says there's bad QTE, that's what I normally think of.

There's a whole spectrum below that, though, getting progressively less bad. Some only take place in battles, but are still at unpredictable times, like Last Remnant. Or they take place in battles at very predictable times, like in Shadowhearts Covenant. Finally, take away the prompt, and it's just standard action game input.
Meh, they are all bad to me. I'd just as soon have them in cutscenes. Resident Evil used to do that quite a bit. I didn't used to dislike them as much as I do now, but I've never been a fan.
 
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Brian Boru

King of Munster
Moderator
How are the action ones really any different than, say, "shoot when the dinosaur opens its mouth"?
3 main differences in my limited experience:

♣ Shooting is always the same action, typically tap or hold the LMB. QTEs [may?] involve scanning the screen to find out which key to press this time, finding it on KB and then mashing.

♦ You can move around with dino, eg dodge his attacks, run behind cover to heal or reload, etc. No moving while under QTE attack.

♥ You can change weapon or ammo or use a throwable when not in QTE mode, to find out what works best.
 
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Zloth

Community Contributor
QTE's typically don't try to hide themselves. They might move so you can see what's going on, but they are going to make sure you see them these days. If they don't, well, that would likely be a bad QTE implementation.

Finding the key is easy, it's finding the button on a controller that's a killer for me! I learned years ago that Yakuza's Karaoke mini-game is far easier on a keyboard. I just put my hands on ye'olde home row and type away. Though there really doesn't have to be different keys - it could always be the space key, for instance.

There may or may not be moving with a QTE, it depends on the game. Take something like the Batman Arkham games. You'll be bouncing all over the battle field, making attacks. While you do them, baddies will flash a warning up, indicating that you need to press your block button or take a pounding.

Come to think of it, don't those games let you turn off those "tell" flashes if you want? A battle system with optional QTEs! (I think Witcher 1 might have had similar for timing when your sword attacks would strike hardest.)
 
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How are the action ones really any different than, say, "shoot when the dinosaur opens its mouth"? The dinosaur bit would be more immersive for sure, but wouldn't the gameplay be essentially the same?
Sorry, I'm not playing the "You had to hit a key, so it's a QTE" game. You and Brian have fun with that nonsense.

*****

I think I have PTSD from my previous colony sims. I keep expecting tragedy to strike and kill all my beavers. I did briefly run out of water during my first attempt at irrigation because it doesn't tell you how much water that takes (or even how much you are pumping in). If a drought had hit right after that we'd have been toast.

Beavers don't migrate in or reproduce when there is no available housing. Maybe I should just not build any new housing--ever--and just declare myself the winner.
 
Did anyone get Jagged Alliance 3? It's not the year 2065, so I know @Brian Boru aka "cheap gamer" hasn't bought it yet, and @Pifanjr is too young to buy new games, but perhaps someone else...

****

I have lots of unemployed beavers. Too many houses. Too many beaver babies. But so far as I know, the only two really important things are food and water. We got lots of those.

I watched a beaver take a shower. Didn't feel right.
 
Did anyone get Jagged Alliance 3? It's not the year 2065, so I know @Brian Boru aka "cheap gamer" hasn't bought it yet, and @Pifanjr is too young to buy new games, but perhaps someone else...

****

I have lots of unemployed beavers. Too many houses. Too many beaver babies. But so far as I know, the only two really important things are food and water. We got lots of those.

I watched a beaver take a shower. Didn't feel right.

I'm interested in Jagged Alliance, but probably getting Baldurs Gate 3 at the start of August and already spent a wedge on the Steam sale earlier this month.

Baldurs Gate 3 looking better and better, the amount of options and actions they've accounted for in game sounds pretty nuts. Trying to avoid too many spoilers there but pretty excited.
 
i'm interested in JA, i did play the original but couldn't get into it. Shame really. But i'll wait and see if there is any more DLC and get it at a knock down price.

speaking of a knock down price, i bought the HB Cyberpunk playground and felt it was a good deal. There was enough games that i wanted that it worked out as less then £3 per game. So when i see severed steel is going free next week on the epic store i felt a mug buying the bundle. At least i adjusted the money so that charities got the lion's share of the money but it still stings that epic has taken the shine from the deal.

In other news, still playing hollow knight. Somehow i still haven't died once yet. I'm at the mines now and just trying to figure out where to go next. i've got the charged dash but not sure where to go next. I'm not going to face the 3 mantis lords just yet though. The other option is some tricky jumping section which isn't helping me sometimes.
 

mainer

Venatus semper
Did anyone get Jagged Alliance 3?
Still high on my wishlist (sitting at #10 actually) and has an overall rating of "very positive" in the Steam reviews. Granted, some Steam reviews are crap, but reading through some of the more intelligent reviews, they list issues like combat balance, inaccurate stealth mechanics, and not having the ability to pause. I think I'll wait a bit before buying, but it looks like an excellent blend of RPG & strategy game (similar to the Wasteland games).

In any other year I would probably have already bought it, but with Baldur's Gate 3 & Starfield both looming, there's no way I would get to it before either of those games. Those 2 games alone will take months of my gaming life, and each has unlimited replay potential. So for me, JA3 will have to wait until next year.

************************************

I'm starting to believe that I may not be able to finish the System Shock Remake, and all because the cyberspace parts are becoming oppressive, aggravating, and no fun at all. The rest of the game (mood, exploration, discovery, & combat) is excellent, but some of the cyberspace sequences I'm finding impossible to complete with enemies swarming me. You can't actually "die" in cyberspace (unless you're on the hardest difficulty), but you get booted out and have to start over from the beginning each time. Not fun.

I've been looking at some mods, but nothing has really addressed the issue. I don't mean to scare people away from the SS Remake, as the issue could just be my inability to deal with the arcade-like combat of cyberspace, as I've never been good at arcade games.
 

Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
I just installed Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access so I could get a headstart on learning different game mechanics. I'm trying my best not to venture too far, just doing some combat and searching small areas for loot/secret with a couple of pinpoints for when I do start paying it seriously.

With the knowledge of how the game looks and feels right now and knowing a lot of what is to come in the release, all I can say is hats off to Larian Studios. This is an amazing accomplishment to the point of almost feeling like it is unreal. This is coming from a person who is a huge fan of Divine Divinity/Divinity: Original Sin 2 and at the same time noticing those games' many flaws, so I would not say I'm easily convinced. BG3 just feels and looks insane, I don't know how else to describe it!

Soooo, yeah. I'm very hyped:D
 
In other news, still playing hollow knight. Somehow i still haven't died once yet. I'm at the mines now and just trying to figure out where to go next. i've got the charged dash but not sure where to go next. I'm not going to face the 3 mantis lords just yet though. The other option is some tricky jumping section which isn't helping me sometimes.
Mantis Lords took a few tries, but its a fun fight. IIRC the first serious roadblock for me was the Soul Master. The game has a habit of making the runs from the benches to the boss fights almost as hard to master as the fights are.

I also found Dead Cells way harder than most people seemed to, so its quite possible I'm just bad at 2D games.
 

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