General Games Discussion

Did someone play the new eFootball formerly PES ??

It's free on PSN store so i decided why not. Feels good to play with Juve again. But the content seems very limited almost like a demo. No career mode, no online, only exhibition

It also feel like i'm playing a hockey game i've driven 53ft that turn narrower than my defenders

Why have I never heard of this game before? Looks really interesting.

looks intriguing

strong bloodborne vibes

Hate it when i play a FPS game and spend more time finding a key or the way to climb up or something compared to actually shooting people ffs.

Bought Deathloop yesterday, it's unsurprisingly extremely good.

The writing is much better than i thought.

#59(S)

Game: Tomba!:-
Year: 1997. 1998.
Genre: Action Platformer Adventure.
Publisher: Whoopee Camp, Sony.
Developer: Whoopee Camp.




Designed and directed by a previous Capcom visionary, Tomba! was meant to be a unique game that defies description. While ostensibly being an Action-Platformer, it also included several RPG and Adventure game elements that it is closer to describe it as a 2D Legend of Zelda than anything else.

So, in effect, the game does succeed in being a unique genre-defying title, which partially explains its critical acclaim and cult-favorite status. However, in playing it years later, it has several pacing and direction issues that are difficult to ignore, and these flaws do keep it from becoming the masterpiece that it's designed to be.

"This was once a peaceful land, until seven Evil Pigs came. They suddenly appeared and changed this land into an ugly world."

Starring the pink-haired barbarian (?) Tomba, the game immediately shows a disregard to the design conventions of the '90s with its edges and dark hues. Instead, the game's world harkens back to the '80s with some charming visuals and a sense of humor throughout.

Starting with a charming anime movie, some Evil Pig minions steal Tomba's golden bracelet, which was given to him by his late grandfather. Aiming to retrieve his stolen heirloom, Tomba instead ends up saving the land from the influence of the seven Evil Pigs.

This takes him through several areas and villages, where he interacts with an expanding cast of characters, solving both minor and major issues, which ultimately should help him find the secret location to each evil pig. Here is where the Adventure genre influence becomes clear. Most people basically require Tomba to fetch things from some locations, and these quests are called "events" in the game. By resolving events, Tomba gets awarded with some items (which can help resolve other vents) and perks.

What's most interesting about Tomba's adventure is seeing the influence of the Evil Pigs on the world. Since each of the seven cursed an area in the land, defeating any of them lifts the curse and changes the world accordingly. For instance, an area with severe storms suddenly becomes much calmer and easier to navigate.

As expected from the premise of the story, this is not really a complex or engaging plot. However, there is some extensive dialogue between Tomba and the many characters of the world, and a lot of it is funny, helping create a charming world.

"Be careful... You must not underestimate the power of the Evil Pigs"

The game's visionary director is Tokuro Fujiwara, who is most famous for his work on the Ghosts 'n Ghoblins franchise, and you can see a lot of Arthur's in the way Tomba moves. While not nearly as rigid and unforgiving as the movement in G'nG, there is still a lot of momentum to consider when you are jumping around.

As for his attacking moves, Tomba needs to deal with his enemies dually. First, he must stun them with one of his extending weapons of choice (whips, boomerangs, chains), and then he can jump on them and throw them around. When throwing enemies, you can throw them at other enemies to defeat them immediately. It's worth noting that several enemies can be jumped on and thrown without needing to stun them.

In fact, I found that I only used my weapon rarely, and at that, only against some specific kinds of enemies. Even against bosses, sometimes it's easier to jump into them than to attempt to stun them first. That's because they are only stunned for a short amount of time, and you can still fluff the jump and get hit by their unreliable hitbox.

This reflects the general movement and mechanics of the game. While Tomba's omentum and attacking options theoretically encourage continuous movement and action, similar to Namco's Klonoa game, jumping into enemies often feels unprecise and the main melee attack forces a full stop whenever you use it. Boss battles compound these issues because they require a near-perfect jump and throw into a moving target, which ruins what are otherwise some interesting battles.

"I can see it in your eyes... You will become stronger. Just don't lose courage"

Outside of combat, Tomba is consistently fun to move, especially as you later equip him with a parasol for gliding and also gain the ability to swim. This partially alleviates the constant amount of backtracking you will need to do throughout the game.

As mentioned earlier, the main thrust of the game is clearing the many "events" it gives you, which in turn unlocks more events to clear. These range from finding a Banana and feeding it to a hungry monkey to a multi-part romp through the entire island stepping on "pumping rocks". Many of these side quests are quite cryptic, both in their description and their solution. For instance, a thief losses his bag and you find it for him in the same area, but the quest continues and he loses his bag again but in a completely different and undisclosed location.

What's more confusing are the conditions to start these events, which often depends on finishing other pre-requisite events. Frustratingly, this means that some items that can resolve some of these quests only appear when you officially log them in. That's the case for defeating the seven Evil Pigs, where you need to acquire a certain item that allows the portal to their boss battles to appear in the world. As you can imagine, this means you don't know where that portal is until you get the key item, which will require you to search all over for that elusive portal whereas a locked door would have been apparent at any time you pass through it with or without a key.

So, the game's most innovative feature becomes extremely annoying without a guide to support you, at least that's the case if you are aiming to finish the game quickly and with as few repetitions as possible. However, this system does have a unique charm if you are willing to just hang out and uncover things at your leisure. There are always new events, and just walking around can become rewarding as you find new things in the areas you revisit.

"Now take yourself and your funky hair out of my sight! My storms create havoc for everyone!!"

As hoped by the exciting opening animation and unique art design, the game's graphics manages to capture that style in a way that maximizes the abilities of the PS1 3D graphical abilities while still maintaining an objectively good look.

Set in a 2.5D world, the game's world is a combination of 3D polygonal objects like Donkey Kong Country and impressive 2D backgrounds. With its expressive characters and uniformly good design, the game manages to look good and memorable.

Interestingly, the game uses its 3D graphics really well by adding in both foreground and background layers you can jump into, as well s some levels where you completely change the perspective by "flipping" the stage and rotating the playing plane around a landmark.

Unfortunately, while the graphical style is consistently good and fits the world and characters, the equally fitting soundtrack is perhaps too apt for the title. As a result, its tracks feel similar to each other, repetitive (especially considering the amount of backtracking), and are not as fun to listen to.

As with a few of the good tracks, I feel some of the tunes needed to have more ambiance to them rather than hit you over the head with how weird and wacky the world is.

In Conclusion:

I feel like I complained more about the game than I initially intended to, and that's because I really liked what it was going for. Tomba over really well, and other than some annoying hitbox issues, I felt the game's core mechanics to be really solid. Especially when in service to a genre-defying game, where there was a lot of promise to the concept of "events" and a labyrinthian adventure game.

However, flaws in its mechanical execution, as well as the cryptic drip-feed of events and lack of signposting meant the game just had too much backtracking to be consistently fun, which I seriously hope was fixed in the sequel.

Tomba! had the potential of becoming a masterpiece. I hope the sequel managed to fulfill that potential.

Final: 7/10

Pros:

• Unique genre-defying game
  
• The game's world and characters are charming in graphics and design
  
• Movment has a satisfying weight to it
  

Cons:

• Some quests are too cryptic and cause too much backtracking
  
• Several issues with hitboxes that cause unnecessary damage and stopping.
  
• The game is just designed with too much backtracking in mind
  

"Tips"
1-Unlock the fast-travel dog as soon as you can.
2-Use a guide for an easier time. Otherwise, keep a pen and paper ready to record your observations whenever you encounter an event.
3-Early on, you can use charity wings to teleport from area to area.
4-Equipping the parasol helps you navigate some of the more dangerous platforming situations.
5-Throwing colored enemies around grants you the exp that you need to unlock some of the stronger power-ups in the game.

"Next Game"

Despite having some cool ideas, the first Tomba! game did not meet my expectations for it. But it had enough promise that I am really excited to start its sequel, which is considered a much-improved game. It's the sequel that I is ranked at #59 in the Retro Sanctuary list, and it will be my next review.

Stay Tuned

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Bought Deathloop yesterday, it's unsurprisingly extremely good.

The writing is much better than i thought.

Don't get why Arkane games are not rated higher here. I loved the Dishonored series and Deathloop is amazing from what I've seen online.

Another underrated developer on these forums: MachineGames.

Mamad wrote:Hate it when i play a FPS game and spend more time finding a key or the way to climb up or something compared to actually shooting people ffs.

Which game you talking about?

Wolfenstein new blood

Discovered Hades and my last 3 days I've been totally obsessed

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Discovered Hades and my last 3 days I've been totally obsessed

I would be playing that, if I had more time on my hands. These days, I'm studying programming and computer security/maintenance. I also work 75%, so I've barely got any free time.

You might enjoy Transistor, Pyre and their first game (forgot the name), by the same developer, if you like Hades. All of their games are in different genres and have different atmospheres, but the art style and quality seems to stay the same. I'm a big fan of theirs, but it bugs me that they decided to make Hades PC exclusive for 2-3 years before they released the game on consoles and mobile devices.

Thimmy wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Discovered Hades and my last 3 days I've been totally obsessed

I would be playing that, if I had more time on my hands. These days, I'm studying programming and computer security/maintenance. I also work 75%, so I've barely got any free time.

You might enjoy Transistor, Pyre and their first game (forgot the name), by the same developer, if you like Hades. All of their games are in different genres and have different atmospheres, but the art style and quality seems to stay the same. I'm a big fan of theirs, but it bugs me that they decided to make Hades PC exclusive for 2-3 years before they released the game on consoles and mobile devices.

Their first game was Bastion. Supergiant Games has an incredibly talented team, pretty much all four games they made are critically acclaimed.

Yeah, I really appreciate the quality of their games, and the atmosphere they bring out through their voice acting and soundtracks. They're such a small team, it's really impressive what they've achieved!

Pedram wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Discovered Hades and my last 3 days I've been totally obsessed

I would be playing that, if I had more time on my hands. These days, I'm studying programming and computer security/maintenance. I also work 75%, so I've barely got any free time.

You might enjoy Transistor, Pyre and their first game (forgot the name), by the same developer, if you like Hades. All of their games are in different genres and have different atmospheres, but the art style and quality seems to stay the same. I'm a big fan of theirs, but it bugs me that they decided to make Hades PC exclusive for 2-3 years before they released the game on consoles and mobile devices.

Their first game was Bastion. Supergiant Games has an incredibly talented team, pretty much all four games they made are critically acclaimed.

I've just binged through their games the past month. Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades. My rankings:

1. Hades
2. Bastion
3. Transistor
4. Pyre

All four are unique, have great soundtrack, art direction and gameplay. They are certainly one of the best developers working today. Hades and Bastion are masterpieces imo.

https://www.pcgamer.com/after-19-years-in-development-absurdly-ambitious-morrowind-mod-reveals-new-roadmap/

In about to Hillcrest in TLOU2 and the game is every bit as good as I expected if not better.

Best graphics Ive witnessed so far, along with the nearly scripted animation. The AI also surpasses anything I have witnessed so far as each kill upon a human has so much weight from their expectations to how none of them are the same to having their own identity to an extent.

Ellie's evolution is remarkable as the supporting characters are rather average so far and the absence of Joel is missing. Speaking of that birthday flashback between the two was the most touching scene in the series so far.

The identity politics and what not in terms of complaint were not as heavy as I thought as they are included readily. An example is that youve a heavier focus on other colours of race in the trading cards along with support for the disabled etc but nothing game breaking and plus America by this point is multi-racial so I do not get what the fuss was about.

Yeah, I don't think the identity politics was very substantial, at all. It makes me wonder if they altered the game to avoid more outrage than necessary. I mean, Druckmann seemed very passionate when he talked about these topics in interviews, and that's what started the controversy among fans, but ultimately, there wasn't much of it in the actual game.

I raised the same question about the Witcher TV series. The producer is a very outspoken, in my opinion, quite obnoxious feminist. I still have issues with her casting. I wish I didn't, but the fact that she chose to switch up the ethnic backgrounds of some of the characters, takes away from my ability to immerse myself in the content and consider it something that's legitimately taking place in the Witcher universe. I can appreciate different interpretations of a source material, but the margin for error will always be slim when there's subjective ideologies involved in those interpretations.

But that aside, again, the actual presence of a a political agenda was kept to a minimum in season 1 of the show. There's the token, black knight and probably a few other things that I've forgotten about, but I don't think it took away from the entertainment value of the show. It's a pretty good show, even if I don't appreciate some of the producer's creative liberties.

I genuinely wonder what the show would have looked like if there had been no social media outrage early in it's development process, though. Social media warriors really do have a lot of power and influence over how many things unfold, these days.

Arquitecto wrote:In about to Hillcrest in TLOU2 and the game is every bit as good as I expected if not better.

Best graphics Ive witnessed so far, along with the nearly scripted animation. The AI also surpasses anything I have witnessed so far as each kill upon a human has so much weight from their expectations to how none of them are the same to having their own identity to an extent.

Ellie's evolution is remarkable as the supporting characters are rather average so far and the absence of Joel is missing. Speaking of that birthday flashback between the two was the most touching scene in the series so far.

The identity politics and what not in terms of complaint were not as heavy as I thought as they are included readily. An example is that youve a heavier focus on other colours of race in the trading cards along with support for the disabled etc but nothing game breaking and plus America by this point is multi-racial so I do not get what the fuss was about.

The fuss has nothing to do with the game, as usual its just an outspoken group of incels.

Witcher on netflix is kinda different because it's an adaptation of an already existing story based on polish folklore. TLOU stands on its own and has been the same from start to end

Thimmy wrote:Yeah, I don't think the identity politics was very substantial, at all. It makes me wonder if they altered the game to avoid more outrage than necessary. I mean, Druckmann seemed very passionate when he talked about these topics in interviews, and that's what started the controversy among fans, but ultimately, there wasn't much of it in the actual game.

I raised the same question about the Witcher TV series. The producer is a very outspoken, in my opinion, quite obnoxious feminist. I still have issues with her casting. I wish I didn't, but the fact that she chose to switch up the ethnic backgrounds of some of the characters, takes away from my ability to immerse myself in the content and consider it something that's legitimately taking place in the Witcher universe. I can appreciate different interpretations of a source material, but the margin for error will always be slim when there's subjective ideologies involved in those interpretations.

But that aside, again, the actual presence of a a political agenda was kept to a minimum in season 1 of the show. There's the token, black knight and probably a few other things that I've forgotten about, but I don't think it took away from the entertainment value of the show. It's a pretty good show, even if I don't appreciate some of the producer's creative liberties.

I genuinely wonder what the show would have looked like if there had been no social media outrage early in it's development process, though. Social media warriors really do have a lot of power and influence over how many things unfold, these days.

With Last of Us 2 its more just not being used to seeing so many multi-racial protagonists that breaks the norm that is initially odd seeing as the ones who dont like it simply dont want the change of status-quo but is nowhere near game breaking.


Witcher though is a different ballgame as outside of Cavill and Ciri (not due to their race) the entire casting was bad even to Jen despite being a good actress but none of the others exuded their presence, let alone looked anywhere near like what described.

Hessenreich like Druckmann is a staunch feminist do did let her politics seep into the world to which doesnt really include such differences and hopefully season 2 wont include that as much.


@Rincon: Should have guessed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KRFsTbthfw

^ Thatäs a nice surprise.

Stalker 2 shots (first UE5 game)

Harmonica wrote:Stalker 2 shots (first UE5 game)

Wow

Really happy and very surprised that Alan Wake 2 is coming as I heard nothing of it but that must be way the remaster came out to refresh memories or create new fans.

One of the most atmospheric games Ive played and I will always play any game by Remedy or Sam Lake.

Stalker looks great.

Star wars Eclipse might be the best cinematic game trailer I've ever seen.

No clue how the game will play but I'm definitely curious after seeing that

https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/15/22834567/stalker-2-nfts-metahuman-dmarket

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1643320/discussions/0/3202620277336976577/?ctp=1

Oh snap, another game ruined by greed? NFT's are forbidden in Steam which could mean the game is removed. This will hurt bad as it's one of my favorite franchises.