2nd Annual RGB Spooktacular Game/Beer Month

[BTails]

@IrishNinja

same! just finished it tonight…hoo doggie, i saved like nobody. haha. hope you have better luck man!

Oh, I totally expect quite a few deaths… Seems like a game that benefits a lot from replays.

@apathetic

Forget the games, tell me how you are liking the various Pumpkin beers.

Well, I’ll be completely honest, that Steam Brewery Pumpkin Ale wasn’t amazing. It was a good beer, but not really pumpkin like, tasted more like an English style bitter with the aroma of pumpkin. My favourites are Crookeder Tooth from Phillips Brewery (Victoria, BC), which is a Barrel Aged Pumpkin Ale, so imagine if Innis and Gunn made a pumpkin beer; and Pumpkin Pie Ale from Alley Kat Brewery (Edmonton, AB), which is honestly like drinking pumpkin pie, it’s so delicious.

[dubc]

Beer thread? Elysian Great Pumpkin Ale is amazing, liquid pumpkin pie. I’m not really a fan of pumpkin beers in general though.

I was planning on spending a lot of time with Castlevania: DoS this month but so far it’s been mostly NES Contra. It fits into my daily life now in that I can boot it up and have some instant action for 30 min or so.

[apathetic]

@dubc

Elysian Great Pumpkin Ale

Heard good things about that one and another from same people. Will give it a try. Also want to try the Cigar City one since I’ve heard good things about it but think I missed out.

And yeah, I just keep being disappointed whenever I try a new one. At best I run into bland, at worst completely foul. Since I love both beer and pumpkin and go for a ton of other seasonal “pumpkin” stuff it is really odd to me. Give the Schlafly Pumpkin a try, think its distributed everywhere. It was a surprise to me since they don’t really have a lot of other big standouts that I go for.

Almost time for a few other good seasonals that I like, like all the gingerbread stouts from Hardywood. I’ve really dialed back my beer intake over the last year so not getting the rare things I use to but luckily there are a few really good breweries right in my area so don’t have to go far for my favorites. Don’t need to be a whale hunter, and never have been, to enjoy the “hobby”. Again I’m lucky because of my location so it’s easier for me to make that claim, but a bunch of my yearly favorites are widely distributed and just sit on shelves.

[Teknoman]

Until Dawn was a free psplus game right? I need to check my library.

[apathetic]

This is now the Spooktacular Game Month/Beer talk thread. Finally got another one to add to the “actually decent” list of pumpkin beers. Punkuccino from Elysian. Got it and the Great Pumpkin Ale and tried Punkuccino first (not really into drinking 2 22ox bombers in one sitting anymore, so Great Pumpkin will have to wait). The only negative I can really say about it is that it tasted a little weak, but that is just because I’m use to coffee themed stuff being way more then 6%abv, so may not be a negative for everyone. Good enough for me to recommend and I’ll be getting more of it for sure. In other beer news randomed upon a bottle of Darkness from Surly while getting the pumpkin stuff and it just shows how out of touch I’ve been. Didn’t even know that stuff traveled but I guess they are actually distributing it now.

Anyway, beat Simpsons Hit and Run recently again. That counts as a Halloween game right? Even with it’s shortcomings I really like it and one of my dream games that will never get made is a sequel to it with the same graphics but bigger/actually well designed map (but only slightly so, not super big like modern open world games but more like the ps2 era GTAs) and more mission variety. All while keeping the same attention to Simpsons detail and references.

[Radarscope1]

It was.

[BTails]

Alright, so I returned to Transylvania this afternoon and played more Castlevania 2. The mansions seemed to get easier as the game went on, with less blind pits. Also, the retranslation is helping, check this clue out to an infamous puzzle…

Much, MUCH easier to understand. The last two mansions also featured bosses, though both were EXTREMELY easy. The Grim Reaper, Death itself, was a cakewalk compared to Castlevania 1.

Finally, having collected all the pieces, I was able to fight Dracula. And just like the only other two bosses in the game, he was SUPER easy. Like, didn’t even get hit easy.

I ended up with the “middle” of the three endings. The endings are based on how long it takes to complete the game, and only really change the ending text. Poor Simon defeated Dracula, but the curse had spread too much, and he eventually died to it, according to this ending. What’s hilarious, is had I beat the game even one day less (7 days), I would’ve had the best ending to the game.

Oh, and @Socksfelloff, nice topic change. This is definitely the fall beer thread too. I actually stopped off earlier today to make sure I had some more to drink for Castlevania 3…

[Socksfelloff]

I knew you’d be disappointed with the ending of that game but I didn’t want to ruin the ending for you! CV2 has a lot of great ideas but I don’t think it’s a game I’ll ever want to replay.

In light of this thread I’ve been working through the EarthBound Halloween hack and boy is it something. For those who don’t know, this was what Toby Fox created before he went on to make Undertale.

The story is great. It takes place years after the events of Earthbound and now there’s a killer on the loose who left a girls parents dismembered and dead. You play a bounty hunter named Varik who has been hired by the mayor of Twoson to find this killer and bring him to justice.

Varik carrying around a stuffed bear:

The game is REALLY bizarre and that’s saying something considering the game it’s based on. There’s plenty of sexual and racist jokes as well as poking fun at things like OCD. The conversations you’ll have with the townsfolk are so ridiculous, offensive, and vulgar that you’ll want to see what everyone has to say.

If you’re a Resetera member don’t bother playing this game.

The game is based in the fall and Halloween is the theme. The town is orange and yellow and really feels like fall. Some of the enemies are Halloween themed as well as the food. You’ll be eating pumpkin loaf and Halloween candy to heal yourself instead of cookies and popsicles.

The game is notorious for being punishing in it’s difficulty and that’s no lie. The first monsters you encounter will hit you for 200+ damage when you have only 16 life. I ended up looking at a walk through for the game just so I could figure out how you’re even supposed to get started. Save states are a must with this hack as save points are far and few between and you’ll frequently run into a random enemy that one shots you. On the plus side I can say that the new SD2SNES save states work wonderfully!

Unfortunately, after about 6 hours of play time, I’ve decided not to continue playing this hack any further. I really love the story and how the game is structured but it’s just too damn hard. It seems they want you to actively try and avoid a lot of the enemies but their spawn point is random so a lot of times you have to reload a save state 5+ times just to get them far enough away that you can avoid them. It creates a game play loop that just isn’t a lot of fun to me.

Time to play some Ghouls and Ghosts on Saturn to continue the Halloween theme!

[BTails]

Socks, that looks insane. I don’t think I’ll ever play it, but maybe worth checking some videos out on Youtube.

I played a bunch more Until Dawn this evening, and it continues to be great. I just had the longest segment yet: the game likes to jump between characters pretty frequently, however this segment was quite significant. I played as a character exploring a creepy, dilapidated Sanitorium from the 50s. There were some great choices (which I can’t wait to see the outcome of), some jump scares, and a whole lot of exploration and clues to find. Definitely my favourite section so far, and I can’t wait to get back into it.

I also ordered The Inpatient as well, the PSVR exclusive spinoff, as I have been so impressed by this game. I’ve already played Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, which was a blast, despite it’s nearly complete lack of narrative.

[apathetic]

Thanks for the recommendation @dubc, finally got around to trying Elysian’s Great Pumpkin Ale. I enjoyed it as much as Schlafly’s which was my previous favorite. Do think I liked Punkuccino more though, but since I’ve only had one of each of them when I’ve had a ton of Schlafly’s over the past couple of years I can’t say for sure yet.

For games, brought on by the Bully 2 rumor I replayed the first game. Have had it on steam for years after a sale and haven’t replayed the game since the non scholarship edition on ps2. It has a Halloween section so it counts right?

I really like the scale of the game and the smaller world allowed for a more detailed/personal experience. Sure, not all of them were important but the npcs being felt like actual people in the world instead of just, well, npcs. Things like the gradual changes towards the next season and the build up of “trophies” in your room were nice touches that I loved. Generally I love it when things you do can improve or change the gameworld in an actual way, even if it’s small like that.

Lets see if the next game I play ends up having a random Halloween segment as well.

[BTails]

I finished Until Dawn last night! What an absolute blast, I honestly think it’s one of my favourite PS4 games at this point, I had a smile on my fave nearly the entire time.

I think what impressed me most with the game was the pacing. The game gives you just enough clues to start to put the pieces together, and thankfully the characters don’t stay too far behind figuring out what’s going on. But there’s still a couple good mysteries that keep you guessing. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome either, it felt just right in terms of length, andit does a good job of sign-posting some of the more significant decisions so that you feel compelled to go back and see the differences.

Speaking of choices, I did decent enough. Only 3 characters (out of 8) ended up dead, and I found probably around 75% of the collectibles. I’m definiely going to go back to make sure I do a “perfect” run where everyone lives. But first, onto more Halloween games…

[BTails]

Another evening, another horror game, and another pumpkin beer…

Time to start the Until Dawn PSVR spinoff, The Inpatient. First off, I’m “drinking” a St. Ambroise Citrouille, which is a delicious Pumpkin beer from Montreal. I put drinking in quotation, because it is insanely hard to drink a beer with a VR helmet strapped to your face.

The Inpatient’s setting should be familiar to anyone who’s played Until Dawn. Without going into too many spoilers, there’s an event in the 1950s that is alluded to during that game, this is the story. The game can be played with either the Dualshock 4, or as picture, the Move Controllers, and even has the ability to use voice commands (though I didn’t try them out). The controls are pretty awkward when using the move: you push the big button on the left controller to move forward, and push the big button on the right controller while angling it left or right to turn. You get used to it, but it’s cumbersome. Likewise, grabbing things in game proves difficult, and your hands actually knock into objects instead of clipping through, so there’s some struggles to get hold of specific things.

The game itself is a good set up so far, I played an hour, and was enjoying it, despite it feeling very contained (You are a patient, after all!). So far the game is alternating between sequences talking to my roommate, and dream sequences. These dreams, tinted in a sickly green, are where the game starts to get really scary. My wife enjoyed watching me jump a few times at some quick scares.

(Can I just, you know, NOT go down this hallway towards the creepy dude?)

I stopped playing just as I finally escaped my cell, so I get the feeling the game proper is commencing soon. Like Until Dawn, you get notifications when actions you take change the path you’re on, they call it the Butterfly Effect, however unlike the predecessor, you can’t check the menu to get clues as to what exactly changed, at least not on the first playthrough.

Looking forward to playing some more, I’ve heard this game is really short (like 3-4 hours short), so I feel like I’m probably already around 25% done.

[BTails]

Triple post, but I played some more Halloween goodness and drank some more Pumpkin Beer tonight…

That’s right, time to start Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse (Wait, wasn’t I cursed last game?). Pairing it with the classic Crooked Tooth by Phillips, the first Pumpkin Beer I ever had, and still an annual favourite. I’m playing the Retranslated patch on top of the Famicom release (Akumajou Densetsu), so I get the amazing music with the expansion audio. The expansion audio was redone for the latest firmware on the Everdrive N8, so it sounds very punchy and very similar to my official Castlevania 3 vinyl (Sourced from the original cart).

The game is a great return to the formula of the first, especially after the fun but flawed Castlevania 2. There’s lots of excellent tweaks though: levels scroll both horizontally and vertically now, leading to some fun (but frustrating) platforming, particularly during the Clock Tower which appears as a possible level 2. That’s right, there’s branching paths, allowing for replayability.

There’s also the ability to find and recruit partners: here you can see I have Trevor Belmont along with the pirate Grant DeNasty (DeNusty / Dynasty, depending on the translation). And I’ve found Alucard, who looks nothing like he will a few games later. Grant plays very interesting, with a high jumpa nd the ability to climb on walls. I only just unlocked Alucard, so I haven’t messed around with him too much.

All in all, a great game. The music is phenomenal, the graphics are superb… Can’t wait to get back to it! Also, screw these owls, I HATE these assholes:

[Socksfelloff]

Cv3 is hands down the best of the 8bit games. You really need to play Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon! It nails the CV3 feel so perfectly .

As for Halloween games I’ve been working through Luigi’s Mansion for 3ds and it’s a fantastic port. The controls have been a bit of an issue for me but overall I’m loving a portable way to play one of my favorites!

With the BloodBorne DLC going on sale, and the appropriate time of year, I think I’ll be replaying BB again after I finish with Gooigi

[Teknoman]

Im also watching castlevania season 2. Holy crap all the game references this time. Trevor’s ancestral home, the remains held within, and who built it, plus the builder’s portrait made me nerd out a bit.

[IrishNinja]

you got further than i did, so props! i just wiki’d or YT’d the rest years back, but i love EB and Undertale both so i had to try, haha

also love to my man @BTails for the inpatient, i was curious about that one as well

did i post in this year’s thread? fuck it, high/drunk so here goes

• doki doki literature club: this shit was…fuck. it’s setup like a typical harem animu game, and…you should approach it that way.

it’s the Audition of games. go in blind.

• Yume Nikki - this one didn’t click for me

• I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - i’m chalking this up like i did System Shock 2 last year: i should just watch this one played. i love the concepts but i don’t have the patience right now for the design choices, and that’s my fault cause (clearly) i frequently revisit old shit, this one just felt…stiff? but i’m really interested all the same

• Danganropa - this was fun, dragged a bit and it’s clearly phoenix wright x battle royale but i bought reload so i guess i’m in for part 2 soon, taking a break cause fuck cliffhanger endings!

• Halloween Forever - this was fun for $5, but i’m not gonna finish it. i get a few levels in and die and then get mad and go play Ghost House so i can get a few levels in & die on that one too

• Corpse Party 3: Blood Drive edition - wish i’dve hit up Btails here too. this one…it seems like a return to form after the design shift in Book of Shadows, but the animu intro should’ve told me all i needed to know. there’s a damn loli shower scene during the 2+ hours you wait to get to the goddamn school and start the game, thanks modern persona and even when you do, there’s now traps and health kits and hiding from monsters like it’s amnesia and all types of shit i didn’t want here.
  this series really should’ve stopped at the fist one, that was great.

• Until Dawn - man, this was really enjoyable, even if it was mean a lotta times (my first playthrough reminded me of the mayor from RE2: “EVERYONE’S GONNA DIE!”). lotta replay here, don’t know how this one stayed under my radar for so long but this was one of my better choices this month.

really though, the best game would’ve been RE7 (gold), i just wasn’t ready for a replay after going through the vanilla game last april or so. talk about ripping some interesting bits from PT (RIP) & such, while still preserving nods to classic RE conventions…this was such a great return of the series that i had thoroughly tossed into the bushes after 6.

[BTails]

Great write-ups Irish. I’ve really been meaning to play Doki Doki Literature Club ever since hearing about it. Haven’t had any twists spoiled it have heard it… Goes places…

The Danganronpa games are a blast. I find some Visual Novels drag on a little too long, and whereas I think you could trim a bit from each game, they’re still pretty high quality. Monokuma is such a great villain. Gonna warn you now though, don’t play Ultra Despair Girls. It was a major slog, there were some decent moments, but it was nowhere near as good as the VNs. Haven’t played 3 yet.

And yeah, Corpse Party 3 is a real stinker. It just wasn’t scary, unlike the first two that had some great insanely creepy moments.

I’m going to get back to Castlevania and the Inpatient really soon, I just have been distracted by Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 recently. Also want to play some of the games I picked up on sale on Xbox for their Halloween sale: Outlast 2 and Bloodstained.

[IrishNinja]

cheers, i started danganropa 2 (very early on) and we’ll see if i stick with that or jump back to spidey DLC (or find a cheaper copy of RDR2, haha). whenever you do get around to 3, lemme know if it holds up!

and yeah, doki doki is short enough and also free, can’t beat that with a bat

[apathetic]

Local Whole Foods got a bunch of Good Gourd from Cigar City in so got to try it. Was disappointing from a brewery I really like. Think I’m done seeking out Pumpkin this year and am just happy that I did find a couple new ones I really liked. Bought too much Punkuccino and gonna get more before the season passes for sure.

@apathetic

Lets see if the next game I play ends up having a random Halloween segment as well.

This however is not the case and can’t even spin any of the recent games I’ve played as to having Halloween parts. So enjoy these bad pictures of my pumpkins instead;

[BTails]

Awesome pumpkins, @apathetic

I played a bit more Castlevania 3 last night. Got to level 7, and learned by going online that I’ve stumbled across the “hard” path in the game by taking Alucard along with me. DAMN, haha. Level 7 is insanely hard, there’s a section in the middle where blocks fall from the sky and you have to avoid them while the land, building a path upwards to a staricase. One wrong jump, or a falling block hitting you mid jump, will send you falling to your doom.

Then, you’ve got a room a little bit after that with Medusa heads and floors that crumble and spin, so lots of opportunity for insta death. I haven’t made it to the boss yet, but you have to fight three in a row. Been studying some “Let’s Plays” on Youtube, and looking forward to trying again later tonight.