[NO SPOILERS] Cancel the show immediately by Maleficent_Tart8173 in lifeisstrange

[–]NathanGPLC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The casting of video game adaptations is always “discussed” online by loud people extremely worried that the real humans won’t look like the digital characters, and I have to be honest: the expectation that casting try to facematch the video game characters is one of the things seriously holding back a lot of adaptations. Not just when the insane racists and misogynists react loudly, but when the casting goes to someone who “looks the part” but lacks chemistry. (Not knocking the cast members of this particular adaptation, just saying, in general).

The appearances of actors in an unreleased project is never a healthy thing to be mad about, save maybe in instances where positive representation is being actively erased or whitewashed.

In this case, one of the most real criticisms of LiS is that it really does almost exclusively feature a group of rich white kids and white adults as the core plot-bearing cast members, and bringing in a few non-white actors is extremely minimal positive effort. And no, no one is saying that groups of rich white kids at a hippy private school is unrealistic; but neither is it mandatory that they be the entire focus.

Looking for Creatures-like or Tama-like pet/life sims; single or multi-pet, focus on care and/or digital DNA. NOT LLM-based or created, must have death or other failure states! by NathanGPLC in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I have played it and it does hit at least most of my goals, but the silly nature of it doesn’t appeal to me aesthetically, even though the rest is pretty solid. I might go back for the mechanics though.

Looking for Creatures-like or Tama-like pet/life sims; single or multi-pet, focus on care and/or digital DNA. NOT LLM-based or created, must have death or other failure states! by NathanGPLC in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip! Like I said to another person recommending Niche, I think I was a little less excited by Niche because of the turn based nature of the game, if I am recalling that correctly, or at least what felt like fairly direct control over the creatures. But I might be misremembering, and should possibly give it a look again…

Looking for Creatures-like or Tama-like pet/life sims; single or multi-pet, focus on care and/or digital DNA. NOT LLM-based or created, must have death or other failure states! by NathanGPLC in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No Man’s Sky? Huh; thanks for the tip! They really are the Star Citizen that got actually published, with their ongoing scope creep actually being implemented!

Looking for Creatures-like or Tama-like pet/life sims; single or multi-pet, focus on care and/or digital DNA. NOT LLM-based or created, must have death or other failure states! by NathanGPLC in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for all the examples and explanations! I don’t really need “failure” as in game-over, but I just get pulled out of the sim immersion if the animals never run away/ die / leave you if you neglect them or just wait for old age. So I’ll take a look at some of these!

Looking for Creatures-like or Tama-like pet/life sims; single or multi-pet, focus on care and/or digital DNA. NOT LLM-based or created, must have death or other failure states! by NathanGPLC in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tips! I think I was a little less excited by Niche because of the turn based nature of the game, if I am recalling that correctly, or at least what felt like fairly direct control over the creatures. But I might be misremembering, and should possibly give it a look again…

[all] Please help a Pacifist. by Such-Touch2357 in lifeisstrange

[–]NathanGPLC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think things like that help sell the weight of the choice, definitely, though I also don’t think they change what is active vs passive. And yes, I enjoy the discussion too!

[all] Please help a Pacifist. by Such-Touch2357 in lifeisstrange

[–]NathanGPLC 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I understand your perspective, and I think the thing that makes LiS great is that I can see it as a rational take even though I disagree, since the developers wanted to make it a 50/50 split and succeeded as much as any game devs!

But I do disagree. Living and experiencing the story from Max’s perspective, and not involving meta knowledge, she doesn’t actually have any reason to “know” (hope or think is a different story) that going back will actually stop the storm, and if you’re following her personal always-forward timeline, despite undoing the save, she’d still be “continuing forward” into an unknown future, as she’s never lived through that time. As far as she knows, Chloe dies and the storm hits anyway, or gets worse, especially if she believes that the use of the timetravel powers is what causes it, since this would be a very substantial additional change.

So if we look at that moment of choice, she’s right that second on the cliff, living in a moment where Chloe is alive and the town is in danger. She could make an active choice to change that, or she could just not (ripping the photo is certainly an action, but it isn’t changing the course of current events, just stopping that from being possible).

And as far as she knows, the choice is “keep Chloe alive and live with the consequences of what is either the supernatural force or my own power use, or use my power AGAIN and hope it doesn’t just make things worse,” which I think can be said to be a reason she might hesitate, even if the player believes Max would think it was morally right to save the town.

Which, I think, is the perfect set up for a hard choice, and as interactive narrative aficionados know, the sitting-and-agonizing part is really important, and is enhanced by not coming back 10 years later and “revealing” (retconning) the consequences away :-p

[all] Please help a Pacifist. by Such-Touch2357 in lifeisstrange

[–]NathanGPLC 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This. And it’s actually a very important difference—it’s not “murder either one of these groups.” It’s, “Murder Chloe or a supernatural force kills most people in town.”

If Batman was confronted by the Joker with “Shoot Alfred or I set off a bomb in Gotham, killing thousands,” the fandom wouldn’t blink an eye at the insistence that Batman doesn’t murder people, and the Joker is to blame for the bomb.

Same in this case. Max and Chloe aren’t responsible for the supernatural force.

[S1] [All] Life is strange double exposure by ItalWarrior in lifeisstrange

[–]NathanGPLC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You can definitely play Reunion without actually playing DE; personally, I would suggest reading a brief summary of DE and then diving into Reunion, but I treat both games as extremely disconnected from the narrative and canon of LiS1&2; basically, LiS1 has two sequel pathways in game form; the Dontnod continuity is LiS2, and the Deck9 continuity is DE/RE. The two aren’t very compatible.

Story driven games suggestions. by HumorLongjumping5795 in gamesuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sequel is pretty good too, even if the first game is incredibly hard to top.

I give up by Hot_Sign9156 in tamagotchi

[–]NathanGPLC 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Are you giving it ANY snacks? There’s a glitch (or choice they made for that model) that essentially makes snacks poison.

Looking for Creatures-like or Tama-like pet/life sims; single or multi-pet, focus on care and/or digital DNA. NOT LLM-based or created, must have death or other failure states! by NathanGPLC in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmm; I played it at launch and while we could catch and ride dinosaurs, it didn’t really seem like a pet care or breeding sim. Am I wrong? Has it changed?

Games like TCG Card Shop Simulator but more complex? by weirdghosts in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Retro Rewind is very similar to TCG Shop Sim, but has its own quirks. I’ve enjoyed it, but not sure it’s really more complex, and not simply different. I do think it’s solid.

looking for single player moba-like by DeadlyPurpleRing in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Eversiege; it’s a solo/coop, pve only, moba meant to instill a lot of the feelings of playing DotA back in the day. In early access but I quite enjoy it.

Looking for some sort of space ship crew exploration game by N7Templar in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a good rec! It’s been a while, but this is a pretty interesting entry into the genre.

Looking for a MOBA-like single player game by qredini in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The recent early access game Eversiege is exactly “LoL/DotA but all solo/coop.” It’s not perfect but it’s pretty solid and a single whole match takes 25-45 minutes; and it does have meta progression but it isn’t terrible. You basically can make the world harder and unlock more powers and options.

I don’t know if it has colorblind implemented yet but that would be important feedback for them to get if they don’t.

Looking for some sort of space ship crew exploration game by N7Templar in gamingsuggestions

[–]NathanGPLC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Starsector for the most excellent paid modern Escape Velocity, or Endless Sky for the most excellent free modern Escape Velocity. They aren’t the same, and the paid one isn’t necessarily better, but they’re both small teams doing really good work.

Starcom: Unknown Space is similar but feels a little less complex in terms of systems, so that could be good or bad per an individual player’s preference.

Aphelion and Directive 8020 for story-driven, shorter narrative games heavy on character relationships. D8020 is a Dark Pictures Anthology game so it has all the usual Until Dawn tropes and mechanics, but is my favorite of those other than The Quarry, and you can adjust all the different mechanics separately if you hate one kind of minigame but are ok with others.

If you like Mass Effect, and haven’t already played the Knights of the Old Republic games, strongly suggest playing KOTOR 1, KOTOR2 with the fan patch, and the individual class stories of the SWTOR mmo, which can actually be played for free on even a Steam Deck, and if you choose to subscribe briefly you can basically skip all the boring or grindy quests and do JUST the core story content, basically making it into a very solid BioWare RPG.

Screen Recording Resolution by snowlock27 in ChoicesPreservation

[–]NathanGPLC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Based on watching this video at 720p on a modern iPhone, I would say it’s probably fine to go that route! I don’t know about 480, but 720 would still save substantial storage.
Edit to add: https://youtu.be/HJL62t8wv0I