Unofficial Who

Minter is an acquired taste and even then some of his works aren't the easiest to get on with. I have a 50/50 hit rate with his games. We'll get to it later but I suspect we'll agree about Iridis Alpha.

I just remembered the game I bought instead of Scarabaeus. It was actually Batalyx, and I suspect I might be the odd one out here because unlike our kind hosts I loved this one! Why did I buy it? Well the very first game I played on the C64 was Gridrunner, an amazing reimagining of Centipede. Just a warning though before we go any further. If you suffer from photo sensitivity this is not the game for you. Even turning strobing effects down (which only effects the strobing in the border) there's still enough here to be cautious about or even skip. (And that's why despite

I touched on this in the other thread but yeah, that price point cuts out a lot of gamers. But if Sony want to position themselves as the Neo Geo of the moment they can do that. Back in the early 90's I would have killed to play some Neo Geo games, SNES games and games on $3000 pc's. All out of my reach and I made do with a C64, Amiga and a psuedo computer I cobbled together from a CD32 and an SX-1. There are cheaper options and you can quite cheaply even roll your own console or PC using a raspberry Pi.

Speaking of....

Especially since PS5's will be in short supply for the next 12 months (with local stock here being grabbed immediately by scalpers.)

Apparently. In a sense I've seen so many arguments in relation to "get gud or get out" that it's kind of put me off Soulsbourne games (and Cuphead) forever. I've only really felt drawn back in because of the eye opening experience I had with (ironically enough) Control.

I think it can add to the experience as well. Doom and Halo are great games on easy, but ramp the difficulty up and you're almost playing a different game altogether! A lot of designers are very binary in their approach to difficulty tweaking health and damage stats. Doom at easy is almost a stealth game, you're creeping around looking for the exit, taking out enemies before they see you. Doom at high levels is like Robotron in 3D! Hades was great with an almost perfect easy mode and "heat" which depending on what combinations you took again changed not just how hard th

Seconded, the music is great, the sound effects though are perfect and it's part of what drew me back for two more runs.

Addressing all the points, I'm starting to have age related issues and so I have just the merest shadow of an understanding of the frustrations of people with a disability, but I think it's doubly frustrating now because we've seen games that can make allowances that might make a game ultra easy for a gamer at their peak but make a game possible (and yet still challenging) for those who already face extra challenges. I'm somewhat frustrated when I'm told that the Dark Souls games have this amazing lore and world building and then being shot down with the suggestion of making it mor

I'm kicking myself over Scarabaeus because twice I had it in my hands and twice it lost out. Once to Tau Ceti which is fair enough but the other time it was....Wizardry. First impressions are great with a fantastic intro sequence. The game itself is a real looker too. It really does feel like an evolution of 3D monster maze with the first level being impossible for pirates. Who would have guessed you had to chase the monster in the first level in order to collect things? I would have adored this 30 years ago. A

Episode 13 is out! Covered this episode -Scarabaeus -Frank Bruno’s Boxing -Topper the Copper -Schizofrenia -Batalyx -Zyto -Doriath -Z I've got really fond memories of two of these.

May 11/05 Batalyx (C64) I don't know how many will even have remembered that this existed. First up a warning, this is definitely a game to avoid if you're in any way photosensitive. This is essentially a collection of Minter games and experiments (five of them plus a scaled down version of his light visualiser Psychedelia) in his early days. The trick? There's a one hour timer. You can play any game you like and switch between them at will but as time goes on they will get harder. As with most of these games the aim is high score, however clearing a game a certain number of times

I don't get it either but apparently it's a thing either due to weird ideas about stolen valour, enshrining developer intent as sacrosanct to being unable to resist using easy modes or assists if they're offered. This is a great counterpoint about creator intent. And

I totally agree with this, I don't think there's an issue with special trophies or achievements for difficult challenges. But Soulsbourne games appear to be a special case according to hard core fans. (Although I suspect Dirt 3 pro players would be incensed at how I "completed" it, putting on so many assists that it was no longer Dirt 3 but Sega Rally with Dirt 3 graphics.) Outside of a remaster I don't think they're going to return to the old games to make them easier. I don't think they want to and given they've sold 25 million there's no real pressure for them to do so

I'd love for Soulsbourne games to have an easy mode and the conversation here has looped around it so I'm going to make a case for .....why an easy mode for Dark Souls won't happen and why we should be arguing for accessibility for future games. First the big one. It's cultural. Soulsbourne fans love overcoming that massive difficulty. I'm not a Souls fan but as an outsider it does appear that the suffering and the overcoming of suffering is part of the joy. Making the game more accessible would diminish the enjoyment for the existing fanbase in a fundamental way. I don't understan