I've spent about 20 minutes on this game. I would rather grind crafting or fishing than play this game any more. I have completely uninstalled it. If I could remove it from my steam library I would. Fuck everything about that game.

Yeah, that game would probably bring me back to my cartridge-chucking days as a kid, where I'd get so pissed off I'd end up breaking rented games by throwing them against the wall (and leaving black marks on said walls in the process).

That level is actually kind of tame compared to a 90% of them, lol.

There are levels where you're being chased by walls of spikes and being shot at by homing rockets trying to grab keys while trying to make the same kind of impossible jumps on much bigger scrolling levels. That character is also "The Kid" who can double jump, you normally play as Meat Boy who can't double jump, moves about twice as fast, and also slides about.

The fact you're put back into the game so fast and levels are so short though makes it plausable. If it was like most games with a "GAME OVER" followed by going back to the main menu and then a minute of loading to get back to where you were just so you could try again, then yeah, there'd be a few monitors tossed out of the window.

But either way, Super Meat Boy is not for the easily frustrated.

yeah i use to break controllers more than i would like to admit, but never the games.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Honestly, I tried all the levels available. I failed so fast and hard I thought I was in Elite.

I feel bad for anybody buying the game out of the blue to try and get the achievement. Meat Boy slowly eases you into all the hard shit by starting off easy. The first pass (Light World) through the game itself is just practice for all the crazy nonsense you have to deal with in the Dark World later. Basically, you'd need to be good enough to actually beat the game first before trying the online stuff.

There's a trick for beating those levels if you wanna cheat though. If you have the game windowed and hit Alt on the keyboard, the game will "stop" but will keep registering controls and allow you to pass through blades unharmed. You can't see what you're doing though, but it only takes a few tries to get through. There's vids of it somewhere. I'll look later.

lol

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Cave Story+

Considering I play a lot of indie games, you'd think i'd have played one of the oldest indie games out there already. Cave Story is a little 2D platformer made by some guy in his garage over the span of 5 years or something, back before the popularisation of digital distribution made indie games a thing. The original game is actually completely free, but it's in Japanese and you have to patch english into it yourself and whatnot, so this Steam re-release was still a good deal for a couple bucks. It improves the graphics resolution (up from 320x240 to 640x480) and improves the music a bit.

It's nifty, the story "just sort of happens", but the gameplay is top notch for a 2D platformer. Instead of levelling up yourself, your weapons level up as you pick up experience, making them stronger, but getting hit makes your currently equipped weapon lose experience and level down. Makes you think about what weapon to use because you're putting your powerful weapons at risk by using them, especially on bosses.

Stealth Bastard: Tactical Espionage Arsehole

NOTE: This game is actually free and can be downloaded from: http://www.stealthbastard.com/

It's been really quiet around here lately so I thought maybe I'd find something to play that's worth recording and showing off. This game is sort of like Super Meat Boy mixed with Metal Gear / Splinter Cell. It's generally a lot less frustrating than the former, mainly because it relies less on your precision platforming skills and a lot more on your ability to plan ahead and think before you act.

Neat little game considering it's free, they could have easily charged $5 for it. It comes with a level editor and an in-game online level database for playing custom levels once you beat the game's own campaign. I cut a lot of my deaths out of this video for the sake of time, so these runs were no means as perfect as they appear to be, but this isn't like Meat Boy, I only died maybe 2 times on each level, and the game has mid-level checkpoints if you do die. I also like the little goggles representing whether you're currently hidden or not.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz_B5VI9Qzg

pretty neat game there ket!

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PS3 Friend list name: Pantherxx Wii code 1629-0463-4657-0263 (revised 9/28/07) Steam ID - Pantherxx010 62BLU 75PLD Reactived 7/5/10 I dare you Click this!

i want to make fun of ket for posting these videos, but the fact that I watch them probably makes me a bigger nerd.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

I post them here simply to give some games that I like, that people maybe never heard of or didnt play, some exposure. I keep them unlisted from Youtube so they're only posted here, not interested in joining the legions of "lets plays" all over the damn Internet in an attempt to milk money out of the youtube monetisation ads.

Just meant to be a "hey, I think this game is cool, take a look."

Sometimes it works, I guess. I know at least a couple of people got interested in Sonic Generations simply because I posted a video of it.

I'd still like to record some "CKD" stuff sometime. Stuff like the FFXIV video was great because it had a lot of us in it and people are always interested in seeing themselves or their friends. I thought of doing Dungeon Defenders since a lot of us are playing that at the moment but the recording would basically be only of me and you'd not see everyone else very often.

That's why I was thinking more of something like Magicka (or some other kind of tightly-knit co-op like, i dunno, left 4 dead?) where everyone is always together.

Mari0

Anybody remember a while back there was a parody video asking "What if Mario had a portal gun?" Well somebody decded to take that idea and make a whole game out of it. So here's me giving it a try, Mario with a portal gun. As far as I'm aware it's the entire game, warp zones and all.

Incidentally, I was never particularly good at the original NES Mario, and it's slightly harder to control when you're using WASD/shift/space + mouse to control it. So don't expect mindblowing Mario gameplay here. Halfway through I reset the game and choose the Portal map pack, which is neat too.

Oh, and while I don't show any of it off in the video, the game also has a bunch of extra features. It's got 4-way multiplayer, a level editor, lots of TF2 style hats for Mario, and a slew of other extra modes.



You can download the game for free (for now - who knows when Nintendo might C&D it) from: http://stabyourself.net/mari0/

I like what you are doing here Ket. Keep us informed, please.

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That was pretty kewl game back then in 1985 when I got my first Nintendo when it came out. Now I remember there was a computer game that works on keyboard but it was just Mairo Bros. Its part that you work in sewer punching under the rails getting mobs on their back as you run and kick them in water.

They set the keys the easy way by using the arrows keys on right side of keyboard and use A and B which are Jump and Run/shoot Fireball keys on "Z" and "X" key. now with mouse that does seem harder the way your setup is. lol

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PS3 Friend list name: Pantherxx Wii code 1629-0463-4657-0263 (revised 9/28/07) Steam ID - Pantherxx010 62BLU 75PLD Reactived 7/5/10 I dare you Click this!

Rayman Origins

This game has been out for a couple months on console already but the PC version is finally here. I'm really glad one of the big name publishers finally decided to try giving a purely 2D retail game a try on the market. It was originally going to be a small XBLA downloadable title, but when they revealed it at E3 a year or two ago it got such huge press and consumer interest that they decided to expand the game into a full retail title.

And to my knowledge, it's done pretty well for itself. Hardly pulled massive sales figures (something like half a million tops maybe) but considering the game's budget was probably a hell of a lot smaller than usual it should have done quite well. Here's hoping we get more purely 2D stuff from some of the big devs in future.

It's basically a "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" clone, right down to the 4 player local co-op support, but that doesn't stop it being a whole lot of fun. It's really just a shame that the game has no online co-op support but I guess they figured it's really meant to be played in a room with other people. It's on Steam for something like $30.

There's a little bit of slowdown in this recording. It seems whenever Fraps drops frames, the game actually slows down instead of just dropping the frames, weird. It's nothing major though.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-9StG-Owjo

Torchlight II - Beta

Extra long video today! I managed to snag a beta key for Torchlight 2 and decided to record the first hour of gameplay, since it's not NDAed or anything.

Picked the Engineer class to start with, thinking of trying the Embermage later. Game runs silky smooth but you'll notice some framedrops thanks to Fraps. Is it better than Diablo 3? I dunno, haven't played it. You'll have to tell me. Started on Veteran difficulty, because if it's anything like Torchlight 1, "Normal" gets too easy by end-game.

Becuase of how long it is and still in HD, this thing took like 6 hours to encode, and another 2 to upload. Well, if you have an hour to waste, here you go.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2gZ8JJEuqc

why play a ripoff when you can play the real thing? i bet they're heavily banking on d3 being a disappointment. sucks for them.

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

Torchlight is made by the guys who made Diablo 1 and 2 (Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer)

Diablo 3 isn't.

Funny how that works.

It looks alright and is cheaper, but I actually like the integrated online aspect of Diablo 3 if you're going to play the game for a long time. torchlight 2 will probably be like Titan's Quest for me. I'll pick it up on the cheap and enjoy it but after beating it on normal or w/e there will be no appeal to keep playing.

Swordigo on the iPhone is fun. It was free the other day, might still be.

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

Whisp, that game looks like it was built in the Little Big Planet level editor. haha. That's pretty neat.

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Final Fantasy XIV - Battle for Aleport

This video turned out kind of un-interesting after I recorded it, but oh well, I felt like recording it at the time.

Spent the entirety of Sunday doing Hamlet Defense with a mishmash of various LS throughout the day, it felt like a pug except it was a mix of CKD/Chocobo/Elite/etc people. By the time I actually recorded this though it was just me and a bunch of Chocobo guys left. I managed to do this fight 13 times throughout the day, and snagged myself a Tremor Seal in the process.

Again, appologies, this video isn't as interesting as I'd hoped it would be. Tank doesn't have anything to do (except solo a Crab and a Bomb) until the NM turns up after 10 minutes, so I just run around buffing and helping cure (and standing around to regen MP), and then it's mostly kiting the NM up and down the same tunnel on my own for another 10 minutes. But if you're bored as hell or want to see a bit of hamlet defense in the background...

NM turns up at 9:50 if you'd rather skip ahead.



The fact I'm not doing much makes this look more boring than it really is. Its still quite fun.

Final Fantasy XIV - The Thousand Maws of Toto-rak

More FFXIV today. I recorded myself while duoing toto-rak for Grand Company seals. You earn about 750-1000 seals every 15 minutes (the re-entry time) doing this. It's about as fast as doing the high-level chocobo escorts but you only need two of you.

You don't need to be well equipped for this, or even Level 50 (level 40-45ish will do). You just need to know where each of the photocells and chests are, the route to take, and know to kill the two bombs at 6:45 to spawn one of the chests.



It's 3000-4000 seals per hour if you feel like grinding it out. Considering the current max GC rank up requires 25,000 seals (and the relic quest also requires 25,000 seals) I figured it was worth recording.

Final Fantasy XII - International Zodiac Job System

Well, well, well. What do we have here? This is the Japan-only re-release of Final Fantasy 12, patched into 100% English, and played on an emulator in glorious HD and 60 fps. It runs flawlessly on my Intel i7 that I play FFXIV on, but my other PC (an Intel Q6600) couldn't quite run it at full speed, more like 70%.

If you hadn't played FF12 before, why the hell not? It plays pretty much like a single player MMO. All the battles are in real-time, with no battle transitions whatsoever, in huge sprawling wide-open areas to run around and explore.

This here is a video a couple of hours into the game, and it's pretty short, just a quick boss fight. Nothing special, just showing off the decent looking emulator graphics. It could easily pass off as an early PS3/360 game. Youtube's video compression doesn't do the game justice.



So, what's special about this version? What's different? Why should you re-play FF12?

• The Job System.
  
  In this version of the game, there is not one license grid, but TWELVE, each one representing an FF Job, such as Knight, White Mage, Red Mage, Samurai, etc. You are forced to assign each party member a job before you can level them up, which sets their license grid, stats, and available abilities and magics. This choice is then permanent for the rest of the game.
  
  This is not as limiting as it sounds, and it makes the game a hell of a lot more interesting when you don't have 6 identical carbon copy party members. This is this edition of the game's biggest feature and the reason to re-play it.
• Turbo Mode.
  
  Tapping L1 will send the game into Turbo Mode. The game will run at something like 10x it's usual speed for all combat, travel, and even in towns. The game runs so damn fast that you'll actually have trouble running in the direction you want to go at first. This is great for grinding and otherwise zipping your way through the game if you don't have much time to play.
• Quickenings and Summoning is no longer tied to MP.
  
  One of the more annoying things in the game was that if you ever used a summon or your limit breaks, it effectively blew your entire party's MP to 0. Making them useless for all but landing finishing blows on bosses. This is no longer the case, and instead Mist Charges are now their own limit break bar that slowly goes up as you fight. Unlocking Mist Charges also no longer suddenly doubles/triples your MP, with MP growth now scaling accordingly.
• Gambits, Guests and Summons.
  
  Firstly, there's a whole bunch of new gambits, but more importantly, you now unlock every single gambit after beating the first couple of dungeons, instead of having them trickled to you over the course of the entire game. This opens up your tactical options with the new job system early instead of having to play 60 hours before you can do anything useful with them.
  
  Also, you may now freely control, and edit the gambits of, both guest party members AND summons. Making them a lot more reliable and useful.

This is what I'm gonna be playing now while I wait for people to start playing XIV again.