Ulysses was such a great novel when I installed some mods to make it easier.
But it wasn't Ulysses.
The elegance of movement in Silksong
281–290 of 358 posts
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want either an easy mode or just let me skip a boss battle after a few tries. There’s also an accessibility aspect to it. Accommodation for players who may have different physical capabilities is just the right thing to do.
Does James Joyce's Ulysses need an easy mode too?
Cheat codes were the original technique for this and they’re probably fine even today.
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have no idea what this game is, and I'm pretty insulated from gaming news, culture, etc. The amount that this name, franchise, or whatever it is has been showing up on my feed is absurd. Reddit, YouTube, Google news, Hacker News. It's everywhere. What the heck is Silksong and why is it saturating the attention sphere? It's on my feed more than Trump and Ukraine and geopolitics and the latest AI fundraises. How did…
Sibling comments are giving good answers about Silksong in particular. But, a more general point to keep in mind is that gaming by revenue is an order of magnitude larger than movies. In that light it's a little strange that gaming news/events don't hit the general attention sphere more than they do.
> gaming by revenue is an order of magnitude larger than movies.
Gaming might make more money, but celebrity news dominates the attention sphere.
It's also heavily weighted by gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Pop culture has wider, more even penetration.
Granted, there is waning generational attention being put into film.
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#284I won't play action games without an easy mode anymore. I've beaten all Dark Souls games and I just got tired of proving myself over and over. Nowadays I just want mild challenge and the certainty I will win after trying a couple of times.
On the other hand, you have games like Borderlands that force you to finish the game once (or even twice) to unlock an "acceptable" level of difficulty (via lazy bullet sponge metamorphosis).
Same with Bioshock Infinite that needed a hack to unlock "1999 mode" or Bloodstained its harder difficulty (still easy, though).
Balance and fair difficulty really are some of the hardest and most important things to get right in video games.
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
100 games over 40 years is not a lot. There's 23 games over the past decade on that list, Hollow Knight being one of them. If being one of the top 23 over the span of 10 years of something doesn't make it "one of the best"[0] in your book, you are entitled to think that. I'm just pointing out that most people believe it was one of the best. You can argue that you are right and the 500,000 concurrent Silksong players…
> 100 games over 40 years is not a lot. You continue to miss my point, as your comment about concurrent player count indicates. I think when you ask people to come up with a list of what they'd consider the best of something, most would max out somewhere between five and ten. Most people don't think of things along the lines of the AFI 100 Best Films list. They think in much smaller categories. > If being one of the…
> That article doesn't include any ranking as far as I could see, and your use of that article is specifically the thing I'm taking issue with in this thread. Are you referring to a different source?
There are 23 entries since 2015 on that page, Hollow Knight included. By definition, it's one of the best 23 games during that period, according to that specific list.
> I think when you ask people to come up with a list of what they'd consider the best of something, most would max out somewhere between five and ten. Most people don't think of things along the lines of the AFI 100 Best Films list. They think in much smaller categories.
I don't agree at all. It sounds like you're making up bizarre exclusionary criteria to discount the fact that Hollow Knight is widely regarded by many people as one of the best games of all time, which explains the hype behind Silksong. This doesn't mean you have to like it, personally. I can acknowledge that Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Last Of Us are both widely regarded as two of the best games of all time, even though I personally found them both boring.
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#286I found Act I not harsh but full of frustating elements. Traps in piss you off locations, 90% of flying enemies who dodge and are tanky for some reason. Like that one particular fly which spawns in exact precise location in runback to boss for you to collide, unless you are sprinting. Bullshit like this. Act II get's better as you unlock more movement and the lore develops. There is some unique stuff there. Boses are…
> unless you are sprinting
So… why not just sprint?
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#287I've played a couple hours of silksong. I don't get the hype. Its a fine game, but I really think people are over hyping it. The internet hype loop on this game is turning me off on it. It's a nice metroidvania game.
I used to think the same when I was around 15-18 hours in. Now I'm finally reaching 100% completion and frankly, it's just very hard for me to argue this is not the best metroidvania ever released. It has a lot of hype, but I think it somehow lived up to it. For reference I do think the original Hollow Knight is a bit overrated, right now I reckon Nine Sols has it beat, but this? The game has SO MUCH to offer, SO SO…
> it's just very hard for me to argue this is not the best metroidvania ever released
Which is exactly how I felt about HK - I never thought I’d see Super Metroid and Castlevania Symphony of the Night shuffle aside to make room at the top, but the genre definition is now a triumvirate, and the newcomer is hybridized with soulslike elements. It’s been a fantastic renaissance for the genre imo.
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you just have to get lucky. You can definitely learn and not have to rely on luck - watch a video of someone good playing a bullet hell shooter[0] and getting a perfect score with no hits. There is not a world that exists in which you could accomplish that with luck. [0] Touhou is probably the definitive example here. Something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY7QEEnSGVU
I'm sure it isn't luck but at the same time I watch these things and genuinely don't understand how they do it. Particularly the whole thing of seeing and reacting that quick. It reminds me of how bad I am with rhythm games. I can't even get through Easy on DDR because the arrows move too fast. It's like I can't read them and react quick enough. Typically I do much better with games where the point isn't to see, proc…
I just timed DDR First Mix on the default settings on Boom Boom Dollar (135bpm). You have 2.67 seconds from the arrow first appearing to needing to input a step. 2,667 milliseconds. Reaction time is not your issue. DDR’s arrows actually move extremely slowly.
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#289> Silksong as a game should not exist. It is so brutally difficult that it stretches the very definition of the word "game". Games are supposed to be fun. They are meant to delight with their whimsy. Sometimes, yes, they are meant to be challenging. But that challenge is in service of fun. Games, more than any other form of entertainment, offer skill challenges. As they've become more popular they've gotten better ab…
It's unfair that you cut off the quote there. Because in the next paragraphs:
> And yet.
> I have played this game obsessively since it came out. I cannot put it down... This game is incredible, I say to myself as a small grub brutally murders me for the mistake of touching its seemingly soft and cuddly body.
Re: The elegance of movement in Silksong
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
The older I get the more I find boss fights off putting. I get literally zero satisfaction out of learning whatever pattern you have to learn to perform whatever correct action, at the correct time, you need to defeat a particular boss. It's just a time consuming chore. Edit: the "boss" escape sequences in the Ori games were also entirely frustrating and and unsatisfying to me.
Same for me. I appreciate stories and standard gameplay loops more than bossfights. I did stumble upon a game where I enjoy the bossfights though - in V Rising. There is a TON of bosses in the game, but the game is so full of quality of life stuff that even dying repeatedly is not a big deal. I generally dislike when my time is a stake in the game. I have so little of it in the first place, I don't like risking it in…
It’s interesting how many people with little time still manage to make time to comment on how little time they have in news article comment threads.