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[Sticky] Open Thread #382: Gaming

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7 thoughts on “[Sticky] Open Thread #382: Gaming

  1. I was finally able to take the plunge and got invested into Dark Souls. I’m doing a sorcerer build, and apparently it can be one of the easier ways of playing. I kind of feel like the lack of a pause menu is a little much. I do feel like it’s appropriate to have your armor/weapons customization and healing done in real-time to prevent cheesing the game (Zelda), however, maybe the select button could have been used for an options menu while also serving as a pause mechanic. Some times I just have real shit to do and need to pause the game. To be fair, there are plenty of locations you can just park your character and walk off for a bit, but that’s not always feasible.

    1. Does your version of the Steam Deck have a suspend feature? That would be a good workaround. These days I find it very difficult to devote an hour or more to game in one sitting. Thus, I have been regressing towards 1990s arcade and console games, basically Capcom fighters and SNES classics.

    2. Yes, but I’ve yet to attempt it during offline mode. There are benefits to playing the game online, yet if you suspend the game you will lose your connection, and upon starting the Deck back up the game will prompt you and back out to the title screen.

  2. Dragon Quest 3 remake has received a censorship makeover. Some examples include:

    -Women are much less exposed
    -Clerics, instead of wearing the symbol of the cross, now have pitchforks symbols
    -Trolls had lips altered, supposedly to look less like black people

    1. Thankfully, this game will come out for PC as well, so modders should be able to quickly rectify this. I also recall reading that instead of male/female your choice is between “body type A” and “body type B”, which seems quite ubiquitous nowadays.

      Speaking of gaming, after playing quite a bit of the arcade version of Street Fighter II and its variants over the last couple of months, I fired up the SNES version of SF II earlier today. It has been years since I last played it. While this version looks pretty bad in comparison to the original, I am really impressed by what Capcom managed to pull off. They really went the extra mile, going as far as to add new content such as a different mini game or new scenes in endings. Overall, SF II for SNES is a really impressive port and still great fun. There is a good reason why this game was Capcom’s biggest seller for about two decades. I also wonder how well the SNES would have fared without SF II, if you look at its list of best-selling games:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System_video_games
      Back then, kids were begging their parents for this console because of Street Fighter II.

    2. If only you could upload anonymous gameplay of your fighting play throughs! Btw, I’ve noticed a pattern of people promoting their music via shorts alongside their game clips, or just memes in general.

      You can bet we had a copy of SF II (Turbo) for our SNES. I think MK might have had a bigger impact in the US (I can’t say for sure), maybe because of locality and shock value. However, I see now that true fighting fans would probably have been more likely to opt for SF. It’s crazy how many arcade versions of SF II there were. I don’t really remember a SF cab in my local arcade growing up, it was always MK.

    3. I have never done any kind of video editing. On macOS, it is possible to record your desktop, or just part of it. If I find some time on the weekend, I will give it a go and at least record a few matches. Please don’t think that I am some kind of super player, though. My fighting style against the CPU basically boils down to being patient, punishing mistakes, and baiting the CPU into making bad moves. I am also not afraid of turtling and letting the clock run out.

      Mortal Kombat on console was not that big in Europe, based on my perception. I think a big reason was that the Sega Genesis was not very widespread and that was the version that sold really well because it was uncensored. The SNES version, on the other hand, had neither blood nor fatalities and as the gameplay was not particularly good, it did not keep anyone’s interest for long.

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