Thought I'd update you fellas on a few recent games. I started to get some of the sludge from 2014 out of the way, although I've still got some good 2013 games to play (ME3, Metro Last Light, Bioshock, Battlefield 4, GTA V).

Dead Effect - 59% on metacritic - me 5/10
UE4 game, but feels more like a Q2 mod with a modern engine, but really flat level design. Enemies very uninspiring, just slow moving zombies. It was hairy at times though because you usually have to get headshots, and especially the first half is tougher before you can get some upgrades to weapons. Really repetitive though, you only get enough money to upgrade one weapon, so that's all you use.

The Old City: Leviathan - 62% - 5/10
Just a walking simulator with pretentious story being narrated, and notes everywhere that I ignored. Nice design though, felt like modern Halflife. I wish they'd just decided to put some freaking monsters in there, it wouldn't even need that many, and make it a sort of survival action game. A shotgun, an automatic of some kind, maybe a grenade launcher. Then just fill it with monster design similar to Ogres, Hell Knights, Scrags, a Fiend and a cunt like a Shambler. 3 weapons, 5 enemies, the story could remain. Make it a 5 hours little gem. But walking through, it's only a couple hours long though. I guess it's a portfolio for a game college student to get a job - probably what all these walking sims are.

Wrack - 66% - 4/10
Only got halfway in this before quitting. Shitty design, level layouts are early-mid 90s maze-like rubbish. It has a retro cartoony style but really not that interesting. Cutscenes and scripts are embarassingly bad.

Among the Sleep - 66% - 5.5/10
You play as a baby! A BABY!!! Complete with crawling, hugging your teddy for light etc. Maybe 2000'ish graphics, not very good but it's designed to have that animated movie type style. I got a bit scared at times though, the creatures you have to avoid were creepy as hell. It's a puzzle adventure but very easy puzzles. About 3 hours long. Really good ending.

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark - 49% - 6.5/10
This got really bad reviews, hammered by critics because it's such a disappointment compared to the previous underrated Cybertron games by High Moon. High Moon got moved to doing ports for COD and Destiny, meanwhile Edge of Reality takes over the Transformers series and clearly doesn't know its head from its ass. The design is pretty shit, same engine as previous with no upgrades, corridor levels, bad textures, dull story and script. However, it's still got the foundation of what High Moon did with all the same character assets, so it actually ended up being pretty fucking fun to play. You get so many weapons, enough ammo that you can usually stick with the high powered rockets and similar. All the vehicles modes are good - I don't think the developers realised the game is much easier just staying in vehicle mode with rockets. Plus you play as several different Transformers so combat is always spiced up. Your stuck with unchangeable keys WASD. I wish more games were as fun as this though. 

 

They might be a bit shit, but it's still better than working or watching TV reading crap on Facebook or whatever else I'd be doing :D 

 

 

is the correct answer 

If I were to ever map again, it wouldn't be for vanilla Quake. I'd want to maybe use the Quake engine or Q2 and make a new game. Pretty much like Quake (spiritual successor). There's a big gap in the indie market where none of them are able to make a good old skool, retro I guess they like to call in, FPS. Sell it on Steam of course for like $10-$15. That much work should not go unrewarded and the industry is more open to older graphics now, when it's intended. The push for the best graphics and engine are over.

But I've got no time to do that.

I thought Sock was doing something like that with the fantasy stuff he was doing, something commercial quality. But maybe not anymore if he's cancelled it. 

AD_Sepulcher, Tronyn merger, now Kona's maps merged into a sprawling megamap, couple more. Then all released as an indie game. 

Possibly better than all the 5.5/10 games Kona is forcing himself to play ;) 

If theres any room for guest mappers let me know ;) 

STRAY 

[DUNG] 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqJnl1QIRGA 

this is bad. 

I would keep an open mind with Stray.
Castle is actually responsible for some of the maps in the semi-official Doom 2 wad 'No Rest For The Living'. 

Were they good maps?

I hope he can at least make an effort to animate the models instead of having them floating across the floor. The Imp models looks alright too, so it could have promise, one day. The fact this gets shown publically suggests he thinks it's okay already. 

I believe castle and one other were responsible for No Rest for the Living.

I hope he can at least make an effort to animate the models instead of having them floating across the floor. The Imp models looks alright too, so it could have promise, one day. The fact this gets shown publically suggests he thinks it's okay already.

I think you're confusing two separate projects by different people? The doom stuff in UE is not Stray. 

btw. I'm playing Serious Sam's Bogus Detour
Very nice game! Huge props for modding capabilities. 

they were excellent maps, bundled with the XBLA version of Doom 2 (hence semi-official). In fact it became my default way of playing Doom 2 for a long time.
I trust he will spend a lot of time nailing down the gameplay mechanics before anything else. 

A bit late I know but hey it's not that previous-gen. Very nice gfx and atmosphere. Surprising variety of interactions so far. But the ridiculous sparse auto-saves (none by any significant gameplay events / pauses / cutscenes) and the trial and error stealth mechanics really suck dick together. Scary alien and synths are less scary when you're bored replaying from half an hour back.

5.5/10 so far. 

You're aware there are manual save points, right? 

May I offer you a "tip(or 2)". No spoliers ofc.

As Skacky pointed out there are save stations scattered about that beep pretty distinctly when you are near.

For me the only thing wrong with that game is how on Nightmare the humans are 360 no scope one shot aim bots :( And also, on any difficulty they shoot through "solid" matter.

I used to speedrun it, have over 1200 hours in game!! 

Already uninstalled/removed from account/refunded. 

Yeah I know those.

I use a save station. Then I play a bit and continue through the game. I complete a task. There's a mini-cutscene. No auto-save like there would be in every other post-2000 non-Souls game ever released. I play a bit more. The Alien appears, decides out of the 15 route choices around whatever particular maze I'm in, it will choose the one that involves eating my fucking face off. Die, reload....back at the fucking save station which might as well be on a different planet. Play a bit, task, cutscene, etc again. This time do all of that, then retrace steps to the save station that is miles back, retrace steps forward, etc etc.