devtesla

devtesla wrote

Reply to i have learned that adam makes a return in metroid dread by hollyhoppet

I'm partway through dread and I'm like 90% sure he's going to betray me lol. the way it's worked so far is that there's special adam save rooms where the first time you find them you get a little call from him that basically just says "hay this thing is dangerous" about all the dangerous things. it's not skippable but it's just a few text boxes.

the idea is that your ship's radio is cut off from your suit, and you can only contact him from those special rooms. it kind of has the opposite effect of adam in fusion, instead of adam telling you where to go you're a cool badass who doesn't really need help.

there's one specific thing that I really liked: which was that adam tells you not to go in the hot rooms until you get the Varia suit. of course, you can totally ignore this and get those powerups early if you want, it's just telling you that you don't need to. it makes disobeying him feel cool

adam returning is clearly supposed to be some kind of meta thing, and I'm not sure if it actually makes the game better but like I get it lol.

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devtesla OP wrote

Reply to Psychonauts 2 is great but I've got a slightly spoilery post of complaints by devtesla

rating the levels

S Tier:
Compton's Cookoff - fantastic concept, and so good at illustrating its themes that it makes about half of the other levels redundant, at least in part
The Motherlobe/Quarry/The Questionable Area - just dicking around in these areas are very fun, as it should be. lots of great optional dialog

A Tier:
Hollis' Classroom/ Hollis' Hot Streak - the structure of this part of the game, including the casino part, rules. depressing that they don't try for something this cool again until the very end, and it's not as good.
Strike City/ Cruller's Correspondence/ Ford's Follicles/ Tomb of the Sharkophogus - I've seen some people angry about the amount of Ford in the game but I thought this all tied together very well, and the levels all had cool gimmicks. Really felt bad each time I put a piece back together.
Cassie's Collection - very funny all the way through, and while it is yet another old Psychonaut (yaoP) it's actually about new things. still a little stale structurally, but that's an overall game problem and not its fault

B Tier:
Lucrecia's Lament/ Fatherland Follies - this section was probably supposed to be as cool as the Hollis part but they had to cut it down, still good stuff, overall satisfying ending.
Bob's Bottles - lot to love about this, but it would have been way better if it wasn't yaoP and if you didn't immediately cure his Alcoholism. if it was close to the same thing but a side character it's A or S teir: well written, looks good, plays interestingly
Loboto's Labyrinth - A fun opening, though I really thought Loboto would be more integral after all that

C Tier:
PSI King's Sensorium - I'm being meaner than I should be because it's just not an aesthetic that I like. I do feel like it should play weirder than it is, if it's gonna look that trippy, but it's pretty normal. Also angry that it hides that it's yaoP until it gets going.
Green Needle Gulch - It's fine, I miss running around the rest of the map tho

That's it, nothing worse than a C

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devtesla wrote

Reply to i get the feeling that i am the only person my friends know who knows someone who does not have a smartphone by twovests

vaccine passports are a band aid solution to the fact that so many people in the country who should be vaccinated aren't. if healthcare in the country was remotely decent, the issue not insanely politicized, and people reliably knew they could get the time off to take em we wouldn't need passports at all.

if we do them they should be a physical thing, for the reasons you state. but yeah in this country there's millions who the people charge are perfectly fine just falling through the cracks, which they've made clear over and over again

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