GeekNights Tuesday - Games of PAX East 2015

MrPeriod

Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about all (except one) of the games we played at PAX East 2015 that stood out in some way. VA-11 HALL-A (Papers Please + visual novel + that bar in Idoru) looks amazing. Red7 is a solid warmup game. One More Line falls short. Videoball will be the fucking breakout game of the future (and we have formed a professional Videoball team). Morels is a solid 2-player game (one step under Battle Line, but much shorter).

In other news, Hotline Miami 2 releases to mixed reviews, Overwatch brings another chapter to the Blizzard vs Valve head-to-head, Long Live the Queen is worth playing, and we will be performing live at both Zenkaikon and Anime BostonYour text to link... this year!

• Castlevania II Amazing Glitch
• Size Matters Not
• Why Five Nights at Freddy's is Scary

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pence

Re: Chris Cieslik: he's the owner of Asmadi (publisher of Innovation etc.) and designer of We Didn't Playtest This at All. Advanced Red7 is good - expert Red7 is madness. I kind of like it, though.

I think Blue Moon is Knizia's best 2p card game, but it doesn't have the mass appeal of Lost Cities or Battle Line, even though they all share a similar feel. I never really connected with Lost Cities or Battle Line, and neither did my usual opponent (Anthony).

I could probably name my greatest hits of 2p card games played from a common deck:

• Jambo. Lots of back and forth, room for clever play, good tension when you can't finish your whole action in a single turn. Everything is a resource that can be spent or converted - cards in hand, wares, and utility cards. If you hoard too much of one resource without a guard (counterspell) in hand you risk seeing half your cards/wares go to your opponent.
• Baseball Highlights 2045, which has a clever mechanic of putting a bunch of effects on a single card and forcing you to play out your entire hand like a trick-taking game (with some wiggle room to call in a pinch hitter) before seeing a new hand of six. You also modify your deck between rounds, and drafting after your opponent often means you can counterpick for the crazy home run robot they just took into their hand.
• Roma, designed by Stephan Feld, pre-Trajan/Burgundy/etc. (although it uses a dice mechanic similar to Castles of Burgundy or Bora Bora). Not a perfect game, but plenty of clever combos and a reasonably steep learning curve.

Honorary mention to Race for the Galaxy, which isn't strictly a 2p game but makes a damn good case for itself anyway.

Matt

I would add Jaipur into the 2p game list.

Apreche

I just sold my Jambo. It never got played, and apparently it was out of print and in demand.

Rym

We played it a few times, but never really got into it.

pence

I haven't played Jaipur, but Anthony is bringing it when he visits this summer so I'll probably have an opinion in a few months.

Since Morels inspired a big list of 2p card games...

I actually don't have a big list for One More Line, but you should play Maverick Bird, Terry Cavanagh's (Super Hexagon, VVVVVV) take on Flappy Bird. Imagine the Hexagonest to Flappy Bird's Hexagon. I only wish this were a more-complete game I could play on my phone.

Apreche

pence said:

I haven't played Jaipur, but Anthony is bringing it when he visits this summer so I'll probably have an opinion in a few months.

Since Morels inspired a big list of 2p card games...

I actually don't have a big list for One More Line, but you should play Maverick Bird, Terry Cavanagh's (Super Hexagon, VVVVVV) take on Flappy Bird. Imagine the Hexagonest to Flappy Bird's Hexagon. I only wish this were a more-complete game I could play on my phone.

Maverick Bird - FUCK THAT SHIT. My score is 8, and I'm never trying again.

Luke Burrage

Apreche said:

pence said:

I haven't played Jaipur, but Anthony is bringing it when he visits this summer so I'll probably have an opinion in a few months.

Since Morels inspired a big list of 2p card games...

I actually don't have a big list for One More Line, but you should play Maverick Bird, Terry Cavanagh's (Super Hexagon, VVVVVV) take on Flappy Bird. Imagine the Hexagonest to Flappy Bird's Hexagon. I only wish this were a more-complete game I could play on my phone.

Maverick Bird - FUCK THAT SHIT. My score is 8, and I'm never trying again.

Holy Shit! I played for 2 minutes, got 7 twice, and I think that's all I can stand.

Matt

pence

Gotta learn to dive! (it resets your vertical velocity)

Matt

I squeaked out a 26. I didn't need diving. I just needed to believe in myself.

Was going for 30, but now I have to go spend the rest of my day in a conference room.

ThatGent

Twitch streamed a tournament at PAX of that smash clone. This is the only point worth noting.

After technical difficulties of finding a replacement controller, the staff then showed their great judge of character by giving him a voice piece from which to spew his concentrated vitriol.

mrbrownjeremy

As far as Metroidvanias, the aptly named metroidvanias.com is actively collecting a pretty exhaustive list (a LOT of indies). One in particular that I'm keeping my eye on is Ghost Song, an apparent confluence of Super Metroid and Dark Souls.

In general, I'm lukewarm on the Metroidvania indie offerings, despite also wanting something more from the genre. Thinking back, Super Metroid, CV: [insert first played DS title], and Shadow Complex may be the only games that captivated me the whole way through.

Rym

Beast I could do in in about 10 minutes of play.

TheWhaleShark

Apreche said:

pence said:

I haven't played Jaipur, but Anthony is bringing it when he visits this summer so I'll probably have an opinion in a few months.

Since Morels inspired a big list of 2p card games...

I actually don't have a big list for One More Line, but you should play Maverick Bird, Terry Cavanagh's (Super Hexagon, VVVVVV) take on Flappy Bird. Imagine the Hexagonest to Flappy Bird's Hexagon. I only wish this were a more-complete game I could play on my phone.

Maverick Bird - FUCK THAT SHIT. My score is 8, and I'm never trying again.

After careful analysis, I concur with Mr. Rubin's assessment.

This noise? Fuck it. Fuck it so much.

Matt

I played for probably 15-20 minutes over the course of my hour-long break from a day full of meetings yesterday. I peaked at 29, and am also never touching the game again. But at least I am walking away in glory.

pence

I've played this game too much, and I make no apologies. The high score on my machine at home is from months ago. Like the original Hexagon, the difficulty is consistent and you could potentially just go forever, with no way to move up other than even more precise execution and endurance...

Matt

I bow.

sK0pe

I'm particularly enjoying that Hotline Miami 2 didn't go back to an easy difficulty. The extra move speed element and looking to see what is happening requires you to solve puzzles (because they are just puzzles, regardless of slow reactions that people seem to have). I'm an old man and can play this game.

The larger room sizes can make you feel like there are some impossible spots however they are more open ended.

I really like Ash and Alex stages where you have an Ice Climbers approach to Hotline Miami, one character has a chainsaw while the other has a pistol, chopping through people at the front while shooting guys across the screen is pretty fun.

MATATAT

I went down a rabbit hole of watching interviews with Tim Rogers (Videoball guy). Guy is fucking weird but hilarious.

Actually I just realized he's the guy that made Ten By Eight.

urhereimnot

When Rym and Scott referred to the "magic number" for some timing thing in Videoball, were you talking about the amount of time that Mario is in the air when he jumps? I remember reading an article a while back that mentioned that timing as being somehow perfect.