I don't play many games but FTL is one of my favourites, one of the few games I've 100%ed, along with the studio's other game Into The Breach. I suppose there may be some unwinnable runs, but most of the time there's something you can do. The key is to pause and think about the situation, and to get a feel for what might be a winnable strategy for any given ship/crew.
But I think ultimately, not all games are for all people. Playing any amount of Dota is my idea of hell. If I wanted to be rushed off my feet and have people be mad at me, I'd go become a line cook.
I had a friend get me a copy of Borderlands 2 so we could play together and it almost ended the friendship. I didn't even get out of the first area before muting the voice volume so I didn't have to hear a dozen different NPCs talking over us the whole time, it is unbelievably dull, and might literally have the spongiest bullet sponges in any FPS I've played. Utterly miserable.
I also realized at some point that I didn't feel like putting in the hours required to win a run of FTL, because, as everyone knows but some people still refuse to admit, it is just luck, and one bad encounter can negate everything you've done even if you're well prepared, know all the odds, and are merely pretty good at the technical aspect of playing the game. That said, I've clicked a lot more with Void War, which is basically FTL but 40K but with none of the licenses to make that official. But Void War has balls, and it doesn't care. It also has way more going on with your own ship and crew that makes it a little more fair and a lot more fun than FTL, then you can start going up in difficulty layers if you still need more challenge. Not a single run of FTL had near as much entertaining stuff going on as even the blandest, dullest run of Void War.
But I can't believe you admitted to playing Overwatch. lol
Good thing you didn’t get far into Borderlands 2. If you thought the enemies were spongy, you would have hated Saturn. He’s a boss that shows up in one area. He has an insane amount of health, fully armored and he doesn’t have any weak spots. The entire fight is just about shooting him until you run out of ammo, then refilling it at a vending machine. I don’t know how anyone at Gearbox saw that and thought it was something people would like to play. Then again, they did make the rest of the game.
We eventually beat BL2 but I don't know how. I don't remember anything about any of the bosses except that I felt like they were all miserable bullet sponges
I am terrible at dropping anything, I will plough through the worst shit in books, films and games just to say I’ve finished it 🙈 so this is a good reminder!
I agree with you about Borderlands… it’s pretty meh. And FTL sounds diabolical. You might have sold me on La-Mulana though… but I probably will rage at it! 🙈
I also dropped overwatch, before OW 2. It pretty much taught me competitive games are not fun to play even when they are fun to play because over time the suckage of losing never lessens while the fun of winning does, and you start to get on the de-ranking treadmill if you can't improve as fast as others.
Great post! I don't understand how anyone could claim that Pudge is a rip off of the butcher. In Diablo 1, the butcher had no way of pulling you towards him. He only gained this ability in his Diablo 3 form. So, Pudge predates the butcher in that regard, given that he was already included in DotA 1.
As a TF2 alumni, the Overwatch section hit way too hard. I remember the hype around it when it was announced, how the hardcore competitive Brazilian TF2 community was already planning to migrate to a game that was going to be supposedly huge as an esport. I guess that sort of worked out in the first few years, but eh. I never really got past the beta.
Only really got into the game when OW2 released, due to the F2P nature. Played quite a few hours with friends, but never really enjoyed it as much as I hoped.
It’s surprising that there hasn’t been a game like Team Fortress 2. Valve isn’t doing much with it, and people want more. If someone makes a decent TF2-like, they’d be really successful.
I still maintain that if TF2 had launched closer to the esports zeitgeist, circa 2013 or so, it'd have been a massive hit on that front. I miss having a multiplayer game with that much personality while also being extremely well-designed.
I don't play many games but FTL is one of my favourites, one of the few games I've 100%ed, along with the studio's other game Into The Breach. I suppose there may be some unwinnable runs, but most of the time there's something you can do. The key is to pause and think about the situation, and to get a feel for what might be a winnable strategy for any given ship/crew.
But I think ultimately, not all games are for all people. Playing any amount of Dota is my idea of hell. If I wanted to be rushed off my feet and have people be mad at me, I'd go become a line cook.
At least a line cook gets paid. I’m over here getting yelled at for free.
I had a friend get me a copy of Borderlands 2 so we could play together and it almost ended the friendship. I didn't even get out of the first area before muting the voice volume so I didn't have to hear a dozen different NPCs talking over us the whole time, it is unbelievably dull, and might literally have the spongiest bullet sponges in any FPS I've played. Utterly miserable.
I also realized at some point that I didn't feel like putting in the hours required to win a run of FTL, because, as everyone knows but some people still refuse to admit, it is just luck, and one bad encounter can negate everything you've done even if you're well prepared, know all the odds, and are merely pretty good at the technical aspect of playing the game. That said, I've clicked a lot more with Void War, which is basically FTL but 40K but with none of the licenses to make that official. But Void War has balls, and it doesn't care. It also has way more going on with your own ship and crew that makes it a little more fair and a lot more fun than FTL, then you can start going up in difficulty layers if you still need more challenge. Not a single run of FTL had near as much entertaining stuff going on as even the blandest, dullest run of Void War.
But I can't believe you admitted to playing Overwatch. lol
Void War sounds interesting. I’ll give it a look.
Good thing you didn’t get far into Borderlands 2. If you thought the enemies were spongy, you would have hated Saturn. He’s a boss that shows up in one area. He has an insane amount of health, fully armored and he doesn’t have any weak spots. The entire fight is just about shooting him until you run out of ammo, then refilling it at a vending machine. I don’t know how anyone at Gearbox saw that and thought it was something people would like to play. Then again, they did make the rest of the game.
We eventually beat BL2 but I don't know how. I don't remember anything about any of the bosses except that I felt like they were all miserable bullet sponges
I am terrible at dropping anything, I will plough through the worst shit in books, films and games just to say I’ve finished it 🙈 so this is a good reminder!
I agree with you about Borderlands… it’s pretty meh. And FTL sounds diabolical. You might have sold me on La-Mulana though… but I probably will rage at it! 🙈
La-Mulana is like blue cheese. You either hate it or you love it, and you know which is which after the first try. Or in my case, the second.
Warframe is 14 years old and still going strong.
True statements that make me feel ancient.
Love this post.
I also dropped overwatch, before OW 2. It pretty much taught me competitive games are not fun to play even when they are fun to play because over time the suckage of losing never lessens while the fun of winning does, and you start to get on the de-ranking treadmill if you can't improve as fast as others.
It’s like that one meme: win game, feel nothing. Lose game, day’s ruined.
Great post! I don't understand how anyone could claim that Pudge is a rip off of the butcher. In Diablo 1, the butcher had no way of pulling you towards him. He only gained this ability in his Diablo 3 form. So, Pudge predates the butcher in that regard, given that he was already included in DotA 1.
I think it’s because Pudge has some voicelines from The Butcher and the same title, so people think the rest of him was copied, too.
As a TF2 alumni, the Overwatch section hit way too hard. I remember the hype around it when it was announced, how the hardcore competitive Brazilian TF2 community was already planning to migrate to a game that was going to be supposedly huge as an esport. I guess that sort of worked out in the first few years, but eh. I never really got past the beta.
Only really got into the game when OW2 released, due to the F2P nature. Played quite a few hours with friends, but never really enjoyed it as much as I hoped.
Also, La-Mulana is incredible!
It’s surprising that there hasn’t been a game like Team Fortress 2. Valve isn’t doing much with it, and people want more. If someone makes a decent TF2-like, they’d be really successful.
I still maintain that if TF2 had launched closer to the esports zeitgeist, circa 2013 or so, it'd have been a massive hit on that front. I miss having a multiplayer game with that much personality while also being extremely well-designed.