Latest Comments by Anza
Steam Next Fest returns with more demos and livestreams
11 February 2024 at 12:10 am UTC Likes: 1

Had time to play a few this time around

Worth checking out:
Bore Blasters: There's already article about this one. But if you're too busy to read it, it's horde survival, except you're piloting a helicopter and you mine deeper and deeper.
Beat the Beats: VR only. Bit like Beat Saber, but with boxing like mechanics. Like Beat Saber, can't play too long as both are physically bit demanding.
Reus 2: Graphically bit more impressive and maybe bit easier to play than original Reus. Basically god game about maximizing bonuses so villages can grow. What's new in this one is multiple planets there are some choices in shaping the humanitys history.

Still fun
Cat Needs: basically moving cats around in order to feed and get them to bed. Bit on easy side, especially once you get used to the puzzle mechanics. Roadmap promises new mechanics, so full game could be fun enough.
Doodle Harmony Ghosts: match silhouettes together. Another pair is black and white, with some details, the second one is just color. If your brain can't handle too much thinking, this could be fun for a while.
Swappy World: Survival game with card swiping mechanics. Has some potential, though I found a bug that will make sure you're overburdened all the time.
Menace from the Deep: Feels bit like Slay the Spire, but mixed with Cthulhu mythos. More complex mechanics, but feels still bit more forgiving as there's things like healing. Froze before I reached the boss. Retried, but looks like I couldn't continue where I left. Some potential here.

Almost fun
Space Drop: Another VR only game. Dodge and shoot asteroid and try collect collectibles while at it. Barely any tutorial. Some potential, but ultimately frustration won.

Broken
Dungeonborne: I browsed the discussions and it might work on Steam Deck, but for the rest of us, anticheat will stop the game from starting.

You're going to need to take mining-shooter BORE BLASTERS away from me
9 February 2024 at 10:44 pm UTC

Quite refreshingly different. Many horde games depend on the meta game in order to get fun. Bore Blaster didn't have that problem at all. I even completed few more levels after there was notification that demo is over.

Steam Next Fest returns with more demos and livestreams
9 February 2024 at 8:28 am UTC

Quoting: CatKillerVoxlands was pretty fun.

I concur. Basically, do quests, shoot enemies and maybe do some survival stuff on the side. Apparently there's also crafting. There's also surprisingly fun way of showing how much health spongier enemies have left.

I played a bit of Shapez 2 also. Core idea is still the same, Factorio-like with more puzzle like coziness, now in isometric 3D. But if you like automation games or have even played the original one, it's worth trying out.

Steam Next Fest returns with more demos and livestreams
8 February 2024 at 12:23 am UTC

Haven't had that much time to play games, but still managed to play some.

Arcticide is kind of rogue-lite version of Tarkov. I haven't actually played Tarkov, but there are some survival elements and exploration seems to be necessary. The game is just quite rough around the edges. For example by default lean is toggle instead of hold. Which wouldn't be necessarily bad, but with toggle I didn't find way to recenter the view. I guess the games pricing needs to be quite low so there's not too much competition from the old classics.

Escape Room VR first VR game I have had time to play. There's few more in the queue.

Title says basically what the game is about. Two rooms that I completed today were doable, though time limit is bit tight, might be easier to reach with multiple players. Though you can keep playing when the time runs out, so the experience is stress free compared to the physical escape room games.

So as far I know, it's compatible with original including the multiplayer, it's just made for VR. The VR side is fine, but interaction with the objects is bit streamlined. Good thing is that interaction with objects is quite effortless once you get used to it. Immersion less so, but games rarely get to Alyx level of immersion. Now the controls can be bit confusing as grip and trigger both are used for grabbing objects, it just depends on the context which one actually works. Trigger just has way longer reach.

All the regular VR sickess reducing things are there. Teleportation, slide show turning and probably vignette that appears when turning might help. I'm too used to VR so I turn those features off whenever I can. Though this game is quite suitable for room sized experience as the pace is relatively slow and game rooms are somewhat small. Probably bit bigger than the Steams smallest recommended play area.

Kind of hard to say if the VR version actually improves the experience over the original. It's nice that you get better immersion in the world, but the actual gameplay might not benefit that much. Though at least the DLC is compatible between the versions, so you don't have to buy everything again if you device to switch to the original.

Steam Next Fest returns with more demos and livestreams
6 February 2024 at 9:46 pm UTC Likes: 1

Haven't been able to dedicate that much time for playing the demos, but I have had time for few at least.

Park Full of Cats is continuing the cat themed hidden object games and in the demo there's not that big changes in the game mechanics compared to the previous game. Which is fine as not every hidden object needs to be inventive. Pushing out just more content is fine too. These games cost peanuts after all.

Also played Synergy as well. There's nice sci-fi flavor and art looks like it's inspired by Moebius. All the staples of builder games are there including some bit more rarely seen ideas. There's some hints that the flora has some diversity.

Demo ended right when things started to go from bad to worse. Second try might go little bit better as there are ways to protect from the heat waves, I just didn't know to build in the shade.

Spec Ops: The Line gets delisted on Steam - you can still buy it elsewhere for now
1 February 2024 at 8:49 am UTC

Quoting: AnzaI do have one extra key in Humble if somebody wants it. Can't guarantee that it works as AFAIK available keys are tied to sales on Steam. So remember to activate it right away.

There's small possibility it gets added back to the store. That happened with DuckTales Remastered. However DuckTales as brand is stronger, so the chance for Spec Ops: The Line are quite slim.

The key found a good home. Good news is that Humble at least has keys left.

Eidos-Montréal cut nearly 100 staff with new Deus Ex reportedly cancelled
31 January 2024 at 8:51 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: TheRiddickAND the IP goes back into The Vault for another 20years.

Rip Deus Ex!

Night Dive might want to do something. Wouldn't be first time for them to go digging in the vaults.

Spec Ops: The Line gets delisted on Steam - you can still buy it elsewhere for now
31 January 2024 at 5:10 pm UTC

I do have one extra key in Humble if somebody wants it. Can't guarantee that it works as AFAIK available keys are tied to sales on Steam. So remember to activate it right away.

There's small possibility it gets added back to the store. That happened with DuckTales Remastered. However DuckTales as brand is stronger, so the chance for Spec Ops: The Line are quite slim.

Get a bunch of great digital board games in this Humble Bundle
6 January 2024 at 3:02 pm UTC

Lot of the games were part of another bundle earlier. So would be buying this for the DLC (last time I played Terraforming Mars as boardgame, it had several of the expansions) and maybe for Carcassone.

I treat the digital boardgames more as a practice for the physical boardgame. I have played Love Letter, Terraforming Mars and Splendor as physical versions and there was some benefit of the digital version being strict with the rules.

Marvel's Midnight Suns and Two Point Campus headline Humble Choice for January 2024
3 January 2024 at 7:01 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: scaineA mate of mine raved about Midnight Suns and was sad I refused to buy it (cos Denuvo). However, this bundle is worthwhile just for Roguebook in my opinion, a game I've raved about quite a few times in the past (and more recently).

Roguebook has been sitting in my wishlist for a while. Humble Choice seems to be one way of helping me to get my wishlist bit smaller (though just removing games that I probably will never end up buying is even more effective).

As for the Two Point Campus, the native version was bit buggy last time when the game had free weekend. So I'll have another chance to do some testing. Though Proton probably works nice too, if I actually want to play it.

I have Red Lantern already, though didn't get it to work. Not lot of test results to figure out what combination works. Two people who get it to work use NVidia cards, so could be that.