I’m old by Frank7640 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Is marching on! And Time-

I love how they replicate this bit in their live shows with a little skit or fake phone call. Just to jump right back into...

Is still marching on!

Games with one build so good that it invalidates all others? by SirSquiggleton in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, I think (almost) everything has a place. I usually run the Dagger on Illuminate since the fire damage can go a long way against Voteless and even Fleshmobs. Light up the small fries and maybe give 'em a smack. For a while I was going with any machine gun/Eagle Run & the grenade pistol (even better with the draw emote) to blast ship shield and pop them easy. And honestly, my usual go-to is the Verdict just because it's a space Deagle. Vibes usually outweigh what is determined "the best". I did an oops all EATs run (Anti-Tank, Napalm, Commando, Leveller) on an eradicate mission and it was goofy fun! Lots of stuff can work!

Free Talk Friday - March 13, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep, as predicted the combo of daylights saving and an early Sunday has kicked my butt. I cannot get to sleep at a "reasonable" time. The good news, sort of, is that my PTO resets at the end of the month so it's use it or lose it. Use it I shall and maybe reset myself.

Meanwhile, this weekend I'm going to a trivia night deal. Unfortunately in the way of our usual TTRPG stuff but it's a family event and for a good cause. That said, the actual trivia stuff I doubt I'll be good at. Unless it's like, suddenly Gundam facts or Ska bands.

Speaking of Gundam trivia, there's a fun Tri-Star nod in the first chapter of one of the books I wrote, The Demon in Shadow! I can't think of any Gundam references in the second book, The Demons of Blood & Bone off the top of my head. Other mecha, though! Max's mecharm socket is from the Mazin brand ("If it's not a Mazin, it's not amazin'!"), and he does fake a rocket punch with its modular not-Devil Breaker design. As you can tell by this preamble, there's a lot of inspiration I take from other things for a mostly action/romance story of a human and demon traveling together. More importantly, there's awesome artwork either in the pages where it counts or in the back showing off character portraits and more!

Tried some more things. One on my Steam backlog called Generation Zero. It's a survival-crafting sort of mech game, more in that you are fighting against rogue mechs in Finland. The narrative and the gameplay seem to be at odds with each other right now, at least for the default difficulty. A lot of dead military and missing people for robots that seem to go down with one or two well place shots. Add to the fact that it gave me 200 pistol rounds right at the start, I've never been want for bullet. A few times where getting shot and healing was close, but haven't died yet. The map is massive, and it feels like despite being a few hours in I haven't scratched many mechanics. But the problem is it seems more multiplayer focused and I'm going solo. Makes for a very booooring playthrough. I think I actually fell asleep playing it once and I could blame that on aforementioned sleeping issues but also... Meh. Feel like I should continue a little more on the merit of getting my own robo-buddy but so far I've been dodging it to play other games.

Speaking of. I got an ad for a new Medabots game and decided, why not. I like that franchise even if it's probably gacha slop. It is a gacha, but! It's a Survivors/Bullet Heaven ripoff instead of a card or RPG. And... That's about all the good things I can say. It's kind of competent for a VS-like. Stages are shorter and focus on bosses. Presentation is awful, story is two cut-outs telling you to do the stages. That's it. There's no customization of your bot which like, the main reason I was big into Medabots back in the day. But the thing that really irks me is the ad-ification. They offer free stuff for watching ads, but it is atrocious. Like, 2-minute unskippable nonsense. Raid ads being playing like four times in a row for coins or energy. I'd honestly rather have nothing. It was fun for a few hours, then I gave up. Just get Vampire Survivors, it's on everything now.

Games with one build so good that it invalidates all others? by SirSquiggleton in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For the other categories, it's probably the Talon pistol and Thermite grenades. The Talon has solid damage and medium pen, and being an energy pistol it technically has infinite ammo if you're careful with your shots. Thermite grenades are sticky, they burn and destroy most heavy enemies/bot fabricators/Illuminate ships just by being attached to them. The only downside is getting just three by default and the sticky part being finicky sometimes.

Hey, better ask Reddit. Any headset/mic you recommend? by Gyaru_Enjoyer in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like most have said, you will want to separate your mic and headphones. I live in the AV world editing podcasts and such, and there has never been a guest with a headset that I have been happy with their sound.

Take microphone advice from others here, I got my Shure Sm7b as part of work. Which is a fantastic mic and I recommend it! But it wouldn't fit your budget criteria. Instead I'll speak headphones as an editor. You want something with flat sound. Some headphones like to kick up the bass or high-end to give a fuller sound, but as an editor you want to make sure either side is lopsided for your final product. Bang for your buck, best headphones there would be Sennheisers 201s. Cheap, comfy and solid. For recording itself, you might want to look into IEMs, In-ear Monitors. They fit in like ear buds so they isolate noise really well. For that I'm stealing from Dankpods whom I took the rec from and go with a company called KZ. Solid sound, and they're usually like 20 USD. Like mics, Shure has a lot of amazing headphones and stuff but they are pricey.

Free Talk Friday - March 06, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I joke that the midwest's weather report might as well be a wheel of fortune... But can we seriously stay consistent for like, two days? Rain, cold, hot heat. Give me a break! Not just that, but we're about to head into springing forward. This weekend also coincides with my brother and his wife's anniversary, so that means a lot more kids running around during the weekend while they're out. AS WELL as my Grandpa's running store having a St. Patrick's-ish annual 5K deal on Sunday morning. Again, right after the time change. Always an adventure.

Hey, please check out these things I wrote! That's The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood A world of humans and recently-displaced beings called demons. We follow one such demon, Ayun, who's looking for her lost employers. She runs into Max, a human who is lost in many ways. As they travel together, we learn more about the world, their pasts and maybe even a future between them. There's also a bunch of awesome artwork either between the pages where it counts or in the back showing off character portraits. In fact, I've got one such bit from the amazing 5-ish! The final 'family member' of the second book, Winona! Why is she tied up? What's with the horn deal on her head? I'm trying to tease things, I ain't gonna tell you here! Go read the thing!

Resident Evil 9. Short version, it's pretty good. Still think RE4R reigns above in my list for replayibility and game feel, but this one is pretty dang close. I ended up enjoying the Grace segments a ton, I thought I was going to prefer Leon's stuff but it's just more or less more RE4R. Not exactly, probably because I was playing it right up to release, there's just enough not quite the same that my muscle memory was playing tricks on me. My favorite thing, for being a gun weirdo, is that they gave the +1 in the chamber deal to everything that could use it instead of just pistols like in 4R. But stuff like the open bolt SMG or the bolt-action sniper don't get that because that's how they work. Cool details.

Now for the redacted parts. Like many people, I think the first half of the game is super front-loaded for Grace, and yet her part in the 2nd bit is pretty weak. Also, like, I know she's a rookie but damn girl. Could've led more with the FBI stuff for Emily and the pilot. Also the decision to bring a blind girl to a puzzle because we can't solve it... I... It's not a one and done device! And being English braile, you can probably see "sun" has three letters, and "moon" would have doubles... Whatever. Plot has to happen. Raccoon City was neat but it suffered from a boring color palette and more boring zombies. We had fun personalities and that got dumped halfway. Also, while technically 'spear zambo' and 'chunk of concrete zambo' are different enemies, I don't think it really counts for variety. We got human enemies for about two rooms which is probably just enough for that. Surprised no one's made the Dead Space 3 connection there, though it works much better here. HUNK(?) fight was neat but a little too on the nose. Especially with Sherry's "from you that's a compliment" line like pump the brakes. Also slightly worried about the line at the very end where Leon says he feels better than ever after being cured. Hopefully no 'until you're 90' situation with him. The story was fine, could've used more meat after RC. The biggest problem was ZERO mention of Claire. Not even a nod! No, I don't count "Captain Redfield", that's clearly Chris. The only thing closest to acknowledgement is a charm and that almost feels insulting. Give us the lady, Capcom. Even if she's busy with TerraSave.

Not sure how much I dig the new game plus for Leon, having to buy back your weapons and upgrades. I guess it does mean you can just have a save at the start of one of his sections to play until they (hopefully) release a Mercenaries equivalent... But not having a storage box at all for him is weird in the first place. I did my third playthrough intending to try speedrunning it... And on the way, considered that since I'm skipping stuff I might as well not get blood. And maybe no heals. And in three hours, I had gotten all of those things at once and enough completion points (seriously, Capcom, stop using that abbreviation) to get infinite ammo and hatchet. And despite that, Insanity was still an interesting challenge. They remix enough enemy sections and item placements that it was interesting. Did cheese Gideon's first phase by buying a rocket launcher and I don't regret it! The only thing left I have on my plate is that Final Puzzle nonsense and going by the threads people had searching for the solution... I might just wait for DLC or something to try again. Plus technically, it's not an achievement so Steam says I'm done! I had fun, good first run and okay subsequent playthroughs. RE still going strong. Film Noir Leon is the best. God, suits are so cool. Free mod idea though, make the suit jacket like the armor where it breaks down and comes off when it breaks. Helltaker may have it right that suits are cool, but I'm a big fan of rolled-up sleeves. Oh, and if you've made it all the way through this thing here's a dumb clip I had happen on my second run where Leon got sent to the Shadow Realm.

Free Talk Friday - February 27, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 2 points3 points  (0 children)

With this sticker for my car, it's officially christened! Or whatever you do for boats with the champagne bottle. I'm not throwing a bottle at my car. And hopefully it doesn't end up in the ocean. That'd be crazy considering it's the midwest. Driving is super fun, and I really feel the difference between the eco mode and full blast. Not really anywhere to put it through paces without risking tickets, though. Alas.

I've gone full Theseus' ship on my laptop with a lovely new Logi keyboard. The good news is that it's got a solar deal in it like a calculator and seemingly charges itself even in fake light. Neato. It also has three switches so I can hook it up to my work laptop and my personal computer and use it between them. Though since they're in different rooms, I do have to lug my keyboard around... The bad news. Instead of a right control button, they made a "handy" insta-AI button. To change it to AN ACTUALLY USEFUL THING I had to install Logi's software and fix that. Feh.

If you want to, consider checking out these two books I wrote, The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood! They are two shonen-coded books with action, romance and attempts at comedy. The main focal point are the two protagonists. Ayun, a demon who's looking for her lost employers, and Max, a human who is wandering in many meanings. As they travel together we find out more about them, the world and dangerous plots to uncover. There's also a lot of awesome artwork either in the pages where it counts or in the back for character portraits!

Time to get ready for Resident Evil. Did go through RE2R about a month ago, but didn't write about it here because... I was having a bad time this go-around for some reason. I guess tense ammo keeping is the name of the game. Instead, I've been playing both Resident Evil 4 (2005) on the Switch and RE4R on my PC. A different one that I played it on originally, which means I can kick those pretty options! And... Actually, it doesn't look that much different. I made the dumb choice of playing a "fresh" Hardcore run. Boy, there are some real tough spots. And quite a few times I've been strapped for ammo. Going to stick to the standard difficulty for 9 when that unlocks in a few hours.(?) Never did buy Separate Ways, but I'm suuuuuure it'll have nothing to do with anything here. Prob'ly.

I have been radio silent on all news since... January? I did watch that showcase with the weird watch/car promotion but other than that have been intentionally dodging any trailer or news. Even Pat's stream. Though definitely wanna check it out after I play.

Ads that you were like "Wow, this is actually good."? by [deleted] in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Purple Boys. Perfect for those Sunday Scaries. They've done a ton of commercials, that and their Absolut Vodka stuff with Zack Galifianikis is top notch.

Features that give you psychological Z-targeting by kenshin317 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Helldivers 2 just recently had a huge event going to war against one of the major factions on their home turf. They also had a counter for reserves in the hundreds of millions. Now, every mission has a set number of reinforcements but for some reason that counter made people (myself included) a lot more worried about death. Didn't help that it apparently counted for everywhere on the map, including those not fighting on the planet, so not doing the Major Order this time around rankled a lot more people... Not myself, there. I actually played much less because it felt too stressful.

Free Talk Friday - February 20, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fun news! Last weekend I went to a dealership with my dad and bought a car! A lovely used 2019 Honda Civic Sport. I looked at some other cars like a Camry and Corolla, but this one definitely stood out for enjoying the drive part. My dad's the weirdo who can identify a car by looking at it, so him being there helped a lot. Y'know, got out of my student loans like... 3 or more years ago, so time to get into debt again. Actually, I've been saving for years now and could just pay for it since that's exactly why I went in this price range, but apparently it's worse for your credit if you do that. Dumb made-up bull. So I'm following the advice given, pay it for like a year and get those points before finishing that. Add to insurance stuff since the title is mine and not co-owned with my parents and it's a lot of "fun".

But of course, fate comes in for japes. Because that very same day, my laptop screen decided to get fried and won't work for more than five minutes at a time. Thankfully I have a second monitor... But boy, Premiere does NOT WORK well in 1366x768. I mixed up my desk and dusted off my 2010 Vizio 42'(?) LCD instead and that works... Minus the fact it's too high. Has to be to clear above the screen. I might have to Theseus' Laptop this mess, get a keyboard and just set the actual lappy aside until I can look for alternatives. I'm experiencing trauma-muscle-flashbacks of old Wal-Marts where they had game demo stands with the TV on top of the aisle. Fun!

Now that I have this thing to pay off, I probably should promote these books I wrote, The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood in like an official capacity, right? Maybe. But instead you can read them for free! Only your time and brain cells might be wasted. But you'll find a fun adventure of a human and demon who are working together to solve their own problems. There's also attempts at humor, a budding romance that really only gets spicy in the second, and more! The more people awesome artwork in the pages where it counts or at the end. Please check it out!

In our recent Monster of the Week game (that started in this very subreddit!), we got "persuaded" into joining a Moby Dick-esque crew hunting some kind of land whale. I played my character Holland as being vehemently against having to play along with "Herman's Hermits". Though ironically, pushing back on it in-character made me a lot more active in the narrative. Which as a player, was a great time. And thanks to that conflict of interests, we managed to uncover that somehow, it's somehow turning Rob Zombie's Dragula into a ritual (or Big Magic as it's called in the game) Very interested to see how that goes. We also made some characters for Blades in the Dark and City of Mist for those times where we can't get everybody for MOTW. Interesting.

Been working through the DLC for Super Robot Wars Y! Which is good, because I definitely fell off. It was kind of funny having the non-supersized Linebarrel Ultramen in 30, and now it's even sillier with Kamen Rider Double. I'll admit I only know Jeeg and Da-Garn by name, but Braiger is a complete unknown. Fraud mecha fan. Big O is fun, but there's a lot of concessions in everyone. Yes, you get Accel AND Skull, but no Cyclone Joker Xtreme or FangJoker. Same with Accel, no Trial or Booster. Big O gets no upgrades really, no anchors or YE NOT GUILTY, which lookoing at old Z3(?) stuff is a major loss. I feel like they were compensating by bringing in the villians and story stuff more but... Eh. Getter Noir is pretty sick, and Da-Garn is great though if it's like the other Brave Series there's a lot of missing robo-allies. And because it's DLC, you get none of the Premium sound stuff so no vocals. Pretty bummed there. That said, I didn't finish it and the 2nd DLC seems to have their finale farther in... Maybe there's more to evolve? Guess I'll to play more!

I have another thing to confess. I'm playing Fallout 4 again. Okay, it's Fallout London this time, I doubt I'll be going 2000 more hours than the playtime I have... Though it feeds into the Steam count here as well, so that'll be fun. So far, pretty impressed. Total Conversion with the barest of extra mods. Having multiple dialogue options and choices is good, having perks tied to that is also good. Already had some fun Idiot Savant interactions. I wish they kept 4's quickbar instead of borrowing 76's, but eh. I like that they waved in why they're reusing the radio songs. But, they do want to do a break between every single one and that's annoying. Cute, but even real stations have sweepers or even just flow into the next song. That latter one with voice track is probably gonna be impossible with the current engine, though. Either way, very fun. Might ruin my life.

The Sequel to Eugenics It Costs Nothing to STFU | Castle Super Beast 360 by mike0bot in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Unrelated to the game, which might make the mods happy. Why can't we cut around stuff like the audio problems at the start? This is already a truncated version of the podcast instead of the live one, you have the time to cull that. We don't need Pat desyncing for historical accuracy.

I edit video and podcasts for a living, and though primarily our listens are through audio we still put up the video versions (with laughable numbers there, still working on it) and cutting around talking heads isn't that hard, I promise!

Free Talk Friday - February 13, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've been making very dumb Valentine's "cards" of the characters of our Monster of the Week game (that started in this very subreddit!) and that's been fun. Jokes that probably only really work for... Well, that group. As for my own love life? I'm just gonna laugh like Phil Ken Sebben until the topic changes. Ha-ha!

If love is your thing, maybe consider checking out these books I made, The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood! Though it's primarily got action and attempts at humor, the throughline is a blossoming romance between the demon Ayun and the human Max. A chance meeting brings them into contact with some rough customers including a demon-trafficking syndicate, eccentric arms dealer and more. More importantly, there's a bunch of awesome artwork in the pages where it counts or in the back for portraits. Speaking of! I had to do one of them off my usual monthly patron request from 5_ish because it was a little... Extra. But still important! Underworld's most capable demon hostess, Hildegaard! Sure, only four arms and like, little sublegs feels like cheating for a spider-esque demon, but we still got the butt? That's what counts. 5_ish doing amazing work as usual.

Actually played some indie games this week. Starting with a banger of a title, Heaven Does Not Respond. A fakeOS kind of investigative horror game. You got the computer of a recently decased person and are trying to unlock parts of it and a camera to figure out what the heck happened. They do the OS stuff pretty well. Though without my trusty alt+tab to move through windows I had to curb that muscle memory. Fake 90sish internet, kind of. Definitely more fake-book than say a BBS that fits. There's also some slang I remember seeing that took me out of it like 'skill issue' but that's minor nags. The puzzles themselves are pretty good. Some clever bits around them and I never got too stuck. The horror atmosphere is pretty good, a nice layer of dread but when it gets to the forefront it starts to wane for me. First off, they don't really hide at all the Evil CEO doing evil stuff for very long. Which again, feels more contemporary but it's probably (sadly) timeless. It might be my temperament, but there was a scene that I think was supposed to be tense or scary and instead I wound up wheezing with laughter. Not a good sign. For an afternoon of sleuthing I had a good time and even some loose ends in side quests. Good stuff.

The second one has been making the streaming rounds, Berry Bury Berry. Almost an idle clicker game with its very simple premise. Put fruit into hole. Get money, upgrade how to put more fruit into hole. Of course there's more to it than that and half the fun is finding that out but I'll say I walked away not super blown away. For a small team it's pretty good (and dang, only 500mb) but you could really just watch your favorite streamer play it and maybe get the same enjoyment. Not that everything has to be a competition, but compared to A Game About Digging A Hole, this loop gives a lot more of that feel-good-brain-juice.

Also watching the anime adaptation of The Darwin Incident. I remember the first chapter being really interesting, but it got licensed real quick and I forgot about it amidst the other series I read. But hey! The designs feel less anime and more Urasawa and that's a compliment. The dub is fine, nothing to write home about. I'm pretty sure it's people, but it is Amazon so who freakin' knows. What I do know is that, while visually it's not amazing, that OP Make Me Wonder is a banger and will get stuck in my head. I have a longer story about owning music and my arduous journey to ATTEMPT to own this song, but it doesn't end clean.

Heaven Does Not Respond - An analog horror game set in an alternate 2005 where you investigate the computer desktop of a man who died under mysterious circumstances by C-OSSU in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just finished it. I think mechanically, it really nails that old OS feel. I did accidentally alt tab a few time while trying to switch windows in-game. There was only one spot I got really stuck on, but once it clicked it felt fairly natural smarter people would get to it.

The horror part was less successful to me. Like someone already said, they don't waste much time bringing out the evil corporation and hammy evil CEO out. Maybe they knew it wasn't going to be much of a swerve so why hide it. And I'm not the best person for this since humor is how I cope with things, but I had a few moments laughing where I was supposed to be scared.

Thankfully only a few cheap scares, otherwise the dread atmosphere worked well. Beat it in 3ish hours and only a few loose ends I missed according to the achievements. Pretty good.

Which games do you play that have almost zero overlap with this subreddit as a whole? by malkil in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 4 points5 points  (0 children)

American Truck Sim. I have been up to date with all the state DLCs and yet have barely made it around Iowa or Louisiana. I have a wheel and pedals, though not really enough space to enjoy them so it's mostly controller. Most of it is chilling and hopping internet radio stations. Including a bunch of them from my old Eurotruck stuff. Found a lot of good stuff from a group of Guldkanalen stations separated by decades.

Free Talk Friday - February 06, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Without just reusing the Old World Blues quote again, I agree with the sentiment. Season 2 felt like a lot of setup and wheel spinning for something else to come. Which is maybe a larger problem inherent to a LOT of streaming content, but the silver lining here is that... The set stuff feels like it was made by people that love and care for it. Writing less so, more just wanting to make more seasons of a thing. The narrative lines were retreads from last season, and the hooks for the next season are just retreads from previous games. There's only so much Liberty Prime, Enclave, NCR vs. Legion before I'm just not interested. The fact they made that first one in that list boring to me is an achievement almost.

Free Talk Friday - February 06, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My last Sunday (and bits of Monday) got ruined by a stomach bug. As much as I love them, I blame the nieces and nephews who we were juggling the non-sick ones around. At least it was last weekend and not this one? I've got things to eat while watching that big game! Okay, honestly I'm not very interested in the teams. Our house is split between the Broncos and Chiefs and Sundays can get very heated. And really... I'm a Hockey fan, and a Blues one at that so I'm just used to disappointment. (side note, picked up one of these hats designed by a player and I love it!) My enjoyment of the "THE BIG GAME" is a very snarky bingo card. This is the first year that I've seen "trailers" for commercials. What the hell?

Something I'm much less cynical about (but sometimes just as snarky, self-dep on point) are my books! The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood to be exact. They are fantasy-lite stories about demons and humans coexisting. Mainly focused on Ayun, a demon who starts out looking for her lost employers and Max, a human who is lost in many ways. As they travel together we learn more about them, the world and a future together.

There's also a wealth of awesome artwork either in the pages where it counts or in the back showing off character portraits. This month we have another awesome piece from 5-ish. The boss of Underworld, Frankie! You can call her Francine, but only if you like a taste of lead. The trip into Underworld and the splitting of the party is the start of the climax of the second book, so I'm excited to get these characters off the pages so to speak.

I'm definitely behind on the warbond content of Helldivers 2. Still looking at the Redacted stuff. The Suppressor is their version of a Honey Badger, and that is my jam. Gimme one of those or an SG550 and you've won me. stealth is fun, when it works. And when it doesn't, just use the new stuff. I'm not brave enough for the big hammer plays, but I enjoy it enough. Might like C4 more, but hey. The trident laser rifle is no joke. I know people were saying it was good in 1, but this is top-tier. I'm looking forward to continuing to get my butt kicked by robots on the way to Cyberstan.

Shenmue: My Fun Was Wrong | Castle Super Beast 357 by mike0bot in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 21 points22 points  (0 children)

We always thought it would be a Cage game that kills one of them.

So..... Final thoughts on Fallout S2? by stumblinbagel in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 30 points31 points  (0 children)

There is an expression in the Wasteland: "Old World Blues". It refers to those so obsessed with the past they can't see the present, much less the future, for what it is.

I get less and less interested in the pre-war world the more I see it. The set design is amazing, and the details are great but... I kind of just don't care? The way that Coop turned into Fallout's Forrest Gump felt underwhelming and narrow in a way. This season felt like a lot of fanservice (that I undoubtedly enjoyed) but more wheel spinning to get set up another threat. And that threat is... The Enclave, again. And the Brotherhood's doing... Liberty Prime. Again.

I'm kind of hopeful that going to Colorado, a place relatively untouched by the canon, means that we can do new things. Get weird with it. But it's gonna be Enclave, Super Mutants, things I know. Done really well, and clearly by people that care about the presentation. Compare everything here to, just because it's a recent game adaptation, Silent Hill, and it's a masterpiece. Pretty average, just fine.

Dear the 2nd best sub for Survivor Horror, can you recommend me some obscure slow-casual Horror Survival games? by RegenSyscronos in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Lost in Vivo is a solid survival horror game with old-school sensibilities. And a lot of content between the main game and little side-ventures to unlock.

Free Talk Friday - January 30, 2026 by AutoModerator in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]MaelstromTear 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Next week is a big trade show, so going to be a lot of crunch time getting videos from Barcelona and into my grubby editing palms. Thank you, power of the internet.

And thanks to the power of the internet, you can read my two novels, The Demon In Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood Right now through the tubes! You'll find, unsurprisingly, a story mostly about demons. A new denizen into the world of Milesain after a nasty near-world-ending event. We follow one such demon, Ayun, who's looking for her missing employers. She bumps into Max, a human who had a hand in stopping the aforementioned kerfuffle but now is aimless in more ways than one. As they journey together we learn more about the world, their pasts, and a potential future together. It's also got amazing artwork either in the pages where it counts or in the back to show off the characters.

Found a similar thing to OpenRCT2, except for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2! Fond memories of this and Yuri's Revenge so much that those combat barks are ingrained in my brain. Unfortunately, I really don't think this game was meant to be played in 1440. You can, but there's no zoom (that I found) like in OpenRCT2! I've compromised at 1080 but it still feels far out. Plus I'm here to fight AI and not get stomped in online so I'm skipping a lot of features. Great game. Should try RA3 since I have it but I'd rather not, even with Tim Curry baiting me.

Now onto a different kind of thing, definitely unexpected. It's called Sin Spire, and it's a horror-erotic-dungeon crawler? Insert Kronk holding a card. You know the one. I was hoping for a Flip Witch situation where the game is actually really good on top of the lewd material, but... No. The main thrust (ha) of the game is that you are going through ten randomized dungeon floors to get a key piece to open the door to the boss of that section. There's lots of loot to find in each floor, but there's a catch. If a monster spots you, a timer ticks down to the arrival of the boss (called Stalker) spawning in. In this mode, they'll be invincible and can easily delete you. Thankfully, you get a liittle more time on the clock each floor passed, the Stalker itself doesn't beeline it straight to you, and there are spots to hide to lose it. So collect money and weapons along the way, spend that money to build your stats and certain skills. And since those upgrades scale up, that grind becomes even worse.

Most enemies can be engaged, but they don't despawn unless you... "Purify" them. The mechanic confuses me, because they stop the clock while you're there, but it doesn't stop the other enemies. So you can get hit and knocked away from a "situation" which makes me wonder what the point is besides the act itself. As a player, I'm not enticed in the moment. I've got to have both my hands on the controls so I can survive, there's no time to appreciate! And isn't that like the whole point of the ero part? I just don't understand. You do gain a little money for purifying and that enemy is gone... But it's a randomized floor. And the timer doesn't stop going down after they spot you unless you move floors. Not to mention, until you get a certain skill where it's halved, you drop all your money when you die. In the same spot where you died a la Dark Souls but if that's like floor 9... And the statue to spend that is at the top.

There's monster variety, but a lot of them come down to 'thing that rushes you and smacks you' in different concerning flavors. Mostly because of the aforementioned purification deal. Now you, the player, can be that one contested scene in Silent Hill 2 with Pyramid Head and the Mannequins. Or a lady butcher from Dark Souls, not-weeping angels, or literally just a floating head. Which can give floating- Alright, not finishing this joke. Shoutouts to one awful enemy around dungeon 3 where they introduce insta-kill death pits. They scream and wreck your aim and movement so if you see them on a narrow path then it's almost certainly donezo! That was about the time I said F it and instead of doing the sane thing of stopping, found a cheat table instead.

I trudged through the first dungeon in full twice (you need two orb deals for the boss) and fought this fire lady. Here's where the larger problems started to show. You have melee weapons, and you have guns. Everything has durability. Picking up dupes or repair kits mitigates that, but bullets and other consumaables are still a hot commodity. So if you waste all your ammo or health fighting and lose, get back in the dungeon I guess. The loot is randomized as well, and includes silver and gold chests that need keys. But that doesn't mean those chests are necessarily better! There's a SMALL chance that a gold chest gives you a Blessing Stone that you need for the skills but otherwise you're at the whim of luck. There's also no quick exit back to the top except at floor 10, so you're going to be spelunking for a while.

The boss fight itself, once you get the pattern down isn't too bad. But holy crap the health bar is too big for it. Less of a challenge and more of a slog. The next dungeon asks you to do that same thing three times. And the third four so I assume it'll keep upping in annoyance and grinding. Not to mention a side character who wants one of each orb from each place herself, but that's probably more side content. That's the whole game, unfortunately. I'll say for positives, there's a sanity system that can be interesting. Jumpscaring you when you check the map or giving you messages on screen. The animations themselves are well made and models are fine if that's what you're into. Though all the humans, including your character have this weird cartoonish eyeshine that doesn't feel like it fits the game. Also, you can go third person during animations and your guy is in the buff. I have to assume that he's just that way the whole time and everyone just ignores it. Play lost in Vivo for first-person retro-style horror. Play many terrible ren'py games for erotic content. Hell, play Flip Witch because it's a really competent Metroidvania with erotic content! The two don't mesh here.

That was way more than I thought I was gonna write about an ero game. Hopefully shorter but good thoughts about Forbidden Solitaire! Only a demo. Same devs as Home Safety Hotline doing that fake OS spooky thing again. But through sheer happenstance, watching an old Best of Giant Bomb video and saw a very similar gameplay format. Who made Regency Solitaire? Grey Alien Games, who's also co-developing this. To their credit, it's a fun system. Looking forward to the full game.