@solitha New rule: cat tax. For every pun you post or repost, you're now required to pay the tax of posting one cute cat video.
Music. Coding. Gaming. Life.
Six Degrees of Confusion
PostedDescent Descent: Underground Gaming Geocore Kromaia NeonXSZ Overload Retrovirus Sol Contingency Sublevel Zero
Note: I come down pretty harshly on a few titles here that probably don't deserve it. Every title listed here is a good title in their own right, and deserves to at least be played through. The point is, nothing, yet, compares to Descent.
As you may know, I'm a pretty big Descent fan. I would even go as far as to say I'm a pretty big fan of the whole Six Degrees of Freedom genre. Really, if you want me to buy your game, make it a first person, Six Degrees of Freedom shooter. I'll buy it.
With that said, I have been a bit confused by the rash of 6DoF titles that have come out claiming they want to be as close to Descent as possible, and yet are doing things that... well, aren't very Descenty.
There's Descent: Underground. This title seems to be doomed with poor net code that micro-repositions your ship just enough to throw your aim off, and a confusing scoring system that they are stubbornly sticking to. They have the name, but in my opinion they seem to be making their own 6DoF game.
There's Geocore, which I can best describe as a project lacking direction. Its single player mode has changed up literally half a dozen times since I've seen I started paying attention to it, and lacks the polish of other titles. It has a slogan of "competition grade", which is shown in its well-done net code, but honestly the original Descent has much better-looking weapons, and the game taxes my GPU like no other.
There's Sol Contingency, the game that originally was going to be Descent but got yanked from under them. While it has a very polished look, there are definitely some contrast issues that make it difficult to see what kind of action is happening in the game. I am also not a fan of the slow startup on its vulcan-like weapon.
There's Overload, the game made by the original Descent developers, who want to give us a modern version of Descent. Except, they have no initial plans for multiplayer, which is very much a core part of the Descent experience to me.
There's Retrovirus, a Descent-like game with a beautiful single player story, but horribly bad multiplayer play. The MOBA game mode was poorly done, and the spaces feel so large that it feels like it's impossible to properly aim. Not to mention the tech trees that let the king of the hill continue to be the king by granting well-performing players extra powers. Descent was a game that already had a wide skill gap, why make it wider?
While each of these titles are very good in their own right, as a fan of the Descent series, all of these titles miss the mark in one way or another. I am beginning to wonder if the experience of Descent can actually be recreated at all. Did Parallax happen upon some kind of magic formula for success that made the original game still the best game of the genre, even 21 years later? Is this 6DoF revival period just a bunch of pretenders trying to recreate the perfect Descent experience?
Or maybe am I overshooting my expectations?
Take Sublevel Zero. I had no expectations that this would be Descent, or anything like it. However, it is probably my favorite of the modern 6DoF games because of its rogue-like replayability, its crafting system that allows you to play the game the way you want to, and some AI that, while it could be smarter, does just enough to be dangerous if you're not paying attention. It has no multiplayer, but it never claimed to be Descent, so I don't expect it.
Take NeonXSZ. One of the few 6DoF games without inertial dampening (in English: your ship continues to move in the direction you moved it even after you stop moving in that direction), this game takes elements from puzzle games, action RPGs, and of course the 6DoF genre and brings it into an engaging environment where, again, you can play the game the way you want to. I didn't expect this to be Descent-like, and therefore was pleased with the polish of the game, as well as the action that came out of it.
And how about little-talked about Kromaia, the 6DoF bullet hell? This is about as far from the original Descent gameplay as you can get, because you want to kill as LITTLE as possible, or else the difficulty ramps up FAST. It's a different way to play a 6DoF, but it was still a fun game.
It seems the games that I have the LEAST expectation of being Descent are the ones I have the MOST fun playing.
Maybe I should cut my expectations short with these new games and take them for what they are, rather than having them try to be the old experience in new clothes, but I tell you what, that can be really hard to do.
As you may know, I'm a pretty big Descent fan. I would even go as far as to say I'm a pretty big fan of the whole Six Degrees of Freedom genre. Really, if you want me to buy your game, make it a first person, Six Degrees of Freedom shooter. I'll buy it.
With that said, I have been a bit confused by the rash of 6DoF titles that have come out claiming they want to be as close to Descent as possible, and yet are doing things that... well, aren't very Descenty.
The Pretenders
There's Descent: Underground. This title seems to be doomed with poor net code that micro-repositions your ship just enough to throw your aim off, and a confusing scoring system that they are stubbornly sticking to. They have the name, but in my opinion they seem to be making their own 6DoF game.
There's Geocore, which I can best describe as a project lacking direction. Its single player mode has changed up literally half a dozen times since I've seen I started paying attention to it, and lacks the polish of other titles. It has a slogan of "competition grade", which is shown in its well-done net code, but honestly the original Descent has much better-looking weapons, and the game taxes my GPU like no other.
There's Sol Contingency, the game that originally was going to be Descent but got yanked from under them. While it has a very polished look, there are definitely some contrast issues that make it difficult to see what kind of action is happening in the game. I am also not a fan of the slow startup on its vulcan-like weapon.
There's Overload, the game made by the original Descent developers, who want to give us a modern version of Descent. Except, they have no initial plans for multiplayer, which is very much a core part of the Descent experience to me.
There's Retrovirus, a Descent-like game with a beautiful single player story, but horribly bad multiplayer play. The MOBA game mode was poorly done, and the spaces feel so large that it feels like it's impossible to properly aim. Not to mention the tech trees that let the king of the hill continue to be the king by granting well-performing players extra powers. Descent was a game that already had a wide skill gap, why make it wider?
While each of these titles are very good in their own right, as a fan of the Descent series, all of these titles miss the mark in one way or another. I am beginning to wonder if the experience of Descent can actually be recreated at all. Did Parallax happen upon some kind of magic formula for success that made the original game still the best game of the genre, even 21 years later? Is this 6DoF revival period just a bunch of pretenders trying to recreate the perfect Descent experience?
Or maybe am I overshooting my expectations?
The New Originals
Take Sublevel Zero. I had no expectations that this would be Descent, or anything like it. However, it is probably my favorite of the modern 6DoF games because of its rogue-like replayability, its crafting system that allows you to play the game the way you want to, and some AI that, while it could be smarter, does just enough to be dangerous if you're not paying attention. It has no multiplayer, but it never claimed to be Descent, so I don't expect it.
Take NeonXSZ. One of the few 6DoF games without inertial dampening (in English: your ship continues to move in the direction you moved it even after you stop moving in that direction), this game takes elements from puzzle games, action RPGs, and of course the 6DoF genre and brings it into an engaging environment where, again, you can play the game the way you want to. I didn't expect this to be Descent-like, and therefore was pleased with the polish of the game, as well as the action that came out of it.
And how about little-talked about Kromaia, the 6DoF bullet hell? This is about as far from the original Descent gameplay as you can get, because you want to kill as LITTLE as possible, or else the difficulty ramps up FAST. It's a different way to play a 6DoF, but it was still a fun game.
It seems the games that I have the LEAST expectation of being Descent are the ones I have the MOST fun playing.
Maybe I should cut my expectations short with these new games and take them for what they are, rather than having them try to be the old experience in new clothes, but I tell you what, that can be really hard to do.
Previous post:
Report Card: 2015
Next post:
The Observatory
Previously in Descent:
Report Card: 2015
Next in Descent:
The Observatory
Previously in Descent: Underground:
Report Card: 2015
Previously in Gaming:
Report Card: 2015
Next in Gaming:
BlizzCon franchise roundup
Previously in NeonXSZ:
(Video)
Next in Overload:
The Overload Teams League
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Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Today was a special day. I scored 1,016,221 points in classic NES Tetris, the first time I broke the 999,999 maxout barrier.
With that maxout, I became the oldest person to get their first ever maxout at 46 years 319 days.
After I scored that, I learned that today would have been 7-time Tetris world champion Jonas Neubauer's 43rd birthday.
I am FILLED with incredible emotion tonight.
https://clips.twitch.tv/AverageImportantGoldfishHassaanChop-bRfUxo4q5SxEgJvI
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
"I'm Sorry, What?!" The biggest bailout in the history of Descent II! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLlTk7wa59A
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
βBART anime merch" are three words that I would not have expected to go together, but here we are. https://www.railgoods.com/bart/anime/
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Does anyone else sing the chorus to "Cherish" by Kool & The Gang to themselves whenever they play or watch streams of Balatro? Or is that just me?
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
I'm fact that's what Lingo needs: a "phone" block. The clue is an incorrect autocorrected form of the answer. π
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
It's like my phone knows I've been playing Lingo. I typed in "exited" and my phone was all:
β¬οΈ EXCITED ------
βͺοΈ
βͺοΈ
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
A comparison of the classic Tetris and Descent communities. Not a post I write lightly, either.
https://roncli.com/blogger/3703157809000934742/a-tale-of-two-communities
martin
@luftlesen @mstdn.jp
Aptiz played #Pentis again. In the beginning you can see roncli asking in the chat for the right version. About an hour later, he broke the #PentisRankings record with 60K ! Congratulations roncli π π
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2052528360?sr=a&t=11267s
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Yeah, it's season 11. But the OTL Season 6 highlight reel is up, this time Fireball has taken the reins! Check out this video jam packed full of kills, deaths, silliness, and Sirius puns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXstLVjnaGo
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Over on #thatbirdhellsite, someone retweeted sympathy for the people being laid off today...
...and then said that Amazon Games was hiring. You know, the one that just had layoffs in NOVEMBER.
Honestly? Tech sucks right now.
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Seriously. Why is it called Sagittarius, A Star? Clearly, it's Sagittarius, A Black Hole. Silly astronomers.
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
This eslint/stylistic breakup is going to give me a headache. Don't developers have something better to do than give other developers busywork?
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Bing is so bad. https://otl.gg is being blocked in their search results, and Bing webmaster tools are absolutely useless, not telling me why it's being blocked.
Does anyone know of some way to get a human to look at this and see what's wrong with it? #bing #microsoft
Olivia W'
@WLivi @retro.pizza
it's not actually common for real hackers to use two keyboards at once; that's just a stereo type.
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Me and my wife, despite buying a house of nice size, always seem to get in each other's way, be it in the kitchen, on the stairs, it doesn't matter. She's all up in my two square feet.
I often joke that all I want for Christmas is my two square feet.
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Update 2: The record that beat Blue Scuti stood for one day. Blue Scuti got it back.
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
I got the honor and privilege of calling the NES Tetris NTSC world record today while running Classic Tetris Wars on my Twitch channel for the very first time. It was thrilling. Congratulations to Blue Scuti for his 6,609,220 level 153 performance. https://clips.twitch.tv/DiligentDeadGoldfishDoritosChip-cx_vDMWAjKaZUK6N
TwistBit
@TwistBit @musicians.today
like, you used to use a phone line to access the internet
now the internet is accessible on your phone
nothing has changed actually
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Six Degrees of Sunday returns Sunday, January 7th, at https://twitch.tv/roncli. Cya there!
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Are you ready to get Six'd Off?
Six Degrees of Sunday, my 6DoF long play Twitch series, is getting revived for 2024. Plus, I will be producing Six'd Off, a companion YouTube series showcasing each game.
Check out the announcement for the game list and more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeRbjjpQVZY
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
So I started a fresh YouTube channel some time ago, and yesterday I released the first real video to it.
Check out highlights from Argus Industrial Moons' run to the OTL Season 10 Best of the Rest title! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2x-GGW9FYI
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
People at work are calling Kubernetes K8, and I hate it. It's not "Kubernete"!
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Want a preview of what CTWC will be like next weekend from a gameplay perspective? CTL Season 22 finals starting now.
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
No airport hell this morning, but you know that lady that talks about security at literally every airport? I just realized, she sounds old AF.
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
If this security line posted signs "5 minutes from this point", "10 minutes...", etc., They'd have to post them every foot. #airporthell
Ronald M. Clifford
@roncli @mastodon.social
Did I miss Elon making another purchase? https://twitter.com/unity/status/1701650081403842851
Konstantinos Dimopoulos
@konstantinosd @mastodon.gamedev.place
That's a lovely free bundle of books for people interested in getting into games programming: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/international-day-of-the-programmer-2023-free-giveaway
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