Lurker > transience

desert golfing, thank you very much

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xyzzy

Hey everyone. Hope you're all doing well, whoever is still around these parts.

I'm not sure if many people still actually visit this mostly dead board but I've been posting my games lists here for something like 15 years. Even if no one actually posts, I'll still finish this because it's a goddamn tradition for me to write about my top games here.

I did a crazy thing in 2019: I wasn't really that into any of the games coming out so I went all in -- and I mean all in -- on playing my favourite games. I ended up playing over a hundred of my top games, including 92 games that made this top 100. I made it a point to play a significant/representative portion of every game in my top 50 that I could possibly play. (My 3DS's hinges broke about 40 hours into Etrian Odyssey Nexus in February and I haven't replaced it yet so I couldn't play anything exclusive to the 3DS.) The end result is probably the most well-prepared list that I will ever make. It kinda feels like I should never try to make another one again after this one, but of course I will because I'm crazy.

Anyway, this will be the usual - short to medium writeups for each game, probably about 10 per day. For those who don't know me, I mostly like jrpgs, platformers/metroidvanias and indie games. I don't get into 3d games/shooters as much because they often make me motion sick. (I would love to love Metroid Prime, but alas.) I'm going to try to wrap this up by 2020 so you can take this as the 457th "game of the decade" list on the internet as well if you care about that kind of thing.

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xyzzy

it'd be fine if you stopped after the main game. celeste gets real hard for the people who want it but you don't need to do it all.

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xyzzy

wait til you see the c sides

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xyzzy

eh, chapter 8 is only four hearts. you'll probably find that many, or close to it, by the time you beat the game. each b-side is a guaranteed heart, for example.

now, I can agree that needing 15 for chapter 9's second half is a bummer (though, if you're really good, you can skip the requirement entirely). chapter 9 didn't even exist until a few months ago though so I see that as bonus content for players who are all in on celeste, but maybe that's the perspective of someone who played the game in 2018. and honestly, if you haven't been through the b-sides the difficulty will probably fuck you up anyway.
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xyzzy

yup. a good trick is to put hall of mirrors on 4 and the attack + freeze move as your default spell. 6 5 4 means an extra dice + 5 damage + freeze.
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xyzzy

I had a pretty wild Witch 4. to say nothing of the run to get there (which was kinda miraculous - the +3 shield can be really valuable if you put it on multiple squares), I had 2hp vs. a 35hp Buster, got off absolute zero, doing 25 damage and freezing 4 dice. his 5 count attack got down to 1 and I did the last 10hp on the last turn.
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xyzzy

bad move
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xyzzy

also thanks for that ngamer
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xyzzy

the beginning of samus returns is straight up bad. once you get about halfway and get some good abilities it actually gets legitimately awesome -- but at its best it's only almost as good as am2r, which is legitimately one of the best games ever, so samus returns is just kind of useless because of that comparison.
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xyzzy

Scathach is nasty. I got her my first 3 or 4 games in a row.
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xyzzy

Thief 2 is tough but fun. I beat it today with a really nice Crowbar deck. you have to really dedicate yourself to the countdown cards if you go with Crowbar, sometimes against your will.

so far I've beaten all of the 2s and Warrior 3.
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xyzzy

it was a big twitter spat last year too
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xyzzy

surprised you didn't go with missile
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xyzzy

star wars marvel and harry potter the holy trinity of popcorn blockbuster movies

my wife is a harry potter megafan too. my daughter is trying to get through the sixth book now but it's terrifying her. she's 11 and just not ready for the dark tone of it. she reads a few pages and then can't sleep because she thinks something's going to kill her in her sleep. maybe next year.
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xyzzy

nice! what's she into?

we tried a dog a couple of months ago. we've tried like 4 different times and they never work out because we have 3 cats and they just hate everyone that isn't us.
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xyzzy

hey tony, leon - how are you guys?
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xyzzy

ninkendo posted...

No one uses the board anymore it's all in the Discord

so this is how board 8 dies, huh

Giggsalot posted...

i have absolutely no idea why i still come here, i have one active post and it's in the politics topic (god help me)

hello friends!

what's up dr. giggs
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xyzzy

yeah dude. I played MUA3 with my youngest today. he literally begs me to play every day and I need to tell him to turn off the video games and go outside. what even am I anymore

anyway, I'm off to bed. good to hear from you all, hope you guys who are asleep are good. I'll be back at some point.
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xyzzy

I watched civil war at work during a system downtime at 4am a couple of years ago. I'll rewatch it soon since we just saw cap 2 last week and I don't remember a damn thing about it.

I'm not in love with the mcu stuff or anything but they're pretty likable, straightforward movies to throw on and enjoy with the lady now that game of thrones is over. we were lacking a good thing to watch together and these movies are simple enough to throw on while we're multitasking.
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xyzzy

hey that doesn't sound like a bad life! life for me is pretty good. I have a really good job that both gives me flexibility and pays the bills and my kids are doing great. my wife is fostering kittens because she needs to nurture something small to feel alive and we're finally getting around to watching the mcu movies (just watched guardians 2 yesterday) and I'm playing a few games here and there as time allows and yeah all is well here.
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xyzzy

with how much money you make (or at least last I knew years ago), I'd sure hope so! no family yet, right? I just assume everyone here is in their 30s and living normal life at this point. well except vlado but you know
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xyzzy

do it! it's so good. you can tell me how much you relate to it. I'm guessing not at all but still.
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xyzzy

dante how are you man? did you watch chernobyl
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xyzzy

we started middle school this week! I got her a phone and now she texts me selfies how am I so old
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xyzzy

I was about to make a joke about how "best ost contest 5" can't be the best contest ever by virtue of it being the fifth contest

but then I remembered that summer 2005 was the fourth character battle, and yeah
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xyzzy

I drove by a store called trans world a few weeks ago and thought for a second about taking a picture before realizing that literally nobody would care in 2019
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xyzzy

holy crap this place is even more dead than I remember
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xyzzy

whoa why is there a beta

yeah man, I felt bad for thunder fans when russ left. like, I get why they did it and the haul they got for george was amazing, but I dunno, I kinda saw russ in okc like I saw dirk in dallas and he didn't get a chance to be that guy for you guys. that dirk final home game was something special and okc fans deserved that, even if the end result is a better team long term.
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xyzzy

what's up guys? hope you're all doing well.
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xyzzy

of course you have that laying around

I do new lists every couple of years, I'll probably post it here when I make a new one next year
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xyzzy

extha is like 30 years old now right
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xyzzy

yeah, get bleed or bleed 2. bleed 2's better but will cost you more and you can always go to 2 if you like 1. the game goes on sale all the time for between 2 and 5 bucks. warning though, it's more of a run and gun, contra-like than something as purely level based on meat boy, and the game is probably about 90 minutes long if you're good. (you won't be). it's fast as hell and feels real good to play.

vvvvvv is an easy rec. it plays fast like meat boy and is really easy to like. will also kick your teeth in, especially if you want to go for 100% (which you will).

n++ is, I think, much better than meat boy and has a ridiculous amount of content, but I wonder if you'll like its floaty precision physics as compared to meat boy's heavy and fast style. it's still amazing though, maybe the best game ever, certainly in the platformer space.

celeste is also highly recommended. you don't need me to tell you about that one though.

if you've got an xbox or pc, give ori a look. cave story's on a lot of different platforms now and is one of the all time games. these are more in the metroid style though, so don't expect quick bursts in quite the same way.

if you want a more nuanced and thoughtful experience, as compared to pure adrenaline, give spelunky or crypt of the necrodancer a shot. or braid, I guess.
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xyzzy

oh hey. I love how people see super meat boy and just assume I'm all over it because it's an indie platformer. it didn't make my top 100 last time 'round.

what do you like about meat boy? if you can describe what it is that you like then I can rec you some stuff. I'll always rec n++ to anyone alive, but I might be able to find something more up your alley.

edit: just realized this topic is a month old so you've probably found something already. apparently the purge rate finally got changed too?! oh board 8 you're not actually allowed to change what is this
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xyzzy