VideoGame_Discussion

Happy Boxing Day! Let's unbox which of our nominees will be the January 2023 Game of the Month!

Nominees
Catacomb franchise
Unreal franchise
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Powerslave / Exhumed
Doom 64
Duke Nukem 3D series
Disruptor

Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The game with the highest score by the end of the month will be the January 2023 GOTM.

I'm not going to vote because, honestly, I really want to play nearly every one of the games we nominated, and giving everything a 5 doesn't really change much. Looking forward to seeing the results, so git yer votes in.

Doom 64 - 5
Duke Nukem - 3

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Is it too late to nominate Perfect Dark Zero?

SupremeSarna wrote:
Yeah, people have already started voting. Nominate it next month!

Doom 64 - 5

This is the only one I actually might play.

I beat Doom 64 last year, so I'm not looking to play that, don't want to crush Scott's vote, so:
Unreal franchise 3
Hexen: Beyond Heretic 2
Powerslave / Exhumed 2
Duke Nukem 3D series 3

Duke Nukem - 5

Dark Forces - 5
Unreal - 5
Hexen - 4
Doom 64 - 4

I really already like all these games, and normally I don’t like giving
Different games the same scores but to me they all deserve to be played.
Hopefully everyone has a fun time with whichever game wins this month.

Last day for votes! I'm really excited to see what we'll be playing next month.

Still playing Mega Man 7 and I’m west coast so I still got 4 more hours to beat the final (?) boss.
This game is kinda annoying tho so who tf knows? But at least I’m trying I guess.

You can still earn a badge after the month is over. We all* will just silently judge you for it.








* nobody, actually

Oh I am feeling the judgement from myself already, I wish I had decided to play this much earlier in the month.
Definitely not the most “fun” entry in the series due to how annoying it is. If I had played earlier I would have
given up already though since I had so much to do in the real.

At 11:17 pm I finished Mega Man 7 and got the achievement too. Now I just need my RTT badge.
They ruined that game by making that boss so stupid cheap. Even though one could technically
Beat the final boss without taking damage I’m pretty sure that is almost impossible.
Happy New Years everyone! I been drinking most of the day but now I can finally enjoy it 😃

Mega Man 7 has returned to the garage to drink lubricant margaritas with Roll and Auto. Here are all the badges we earned this month:

BleedingViolet image BloodPuppetX image Renaissance2K image SupremeSarna image

Many thanks to those of you that averted Dr. Wily's first 16-bit shenanegans. Feel free to post an update later on to get your badge.

These four Mega Man badges are a subset of the 99 badges we earned as a thread this year, playing through 26 different games, 14 of which were Castlevania titles. With 35 badges, @Slickriven took home more than anyone else in the thread, largely thanks to our NBA Jam challenge to play through the game with each available team.

To kick off 2023, here are the results for January's Game of the Month:

1. Doom 64 - 19 votes
2. Duke Nukem 3D series - 16 votes
3. Unreal franchise - 13 votes
3. Star Wars: Dark Forces - 13 votes
5. Hexen: Beyond Heretic - 11 votes
5. Powerslave / Exhumed - 11 votes
7. Catacomb franchise - 10 votes
8. Disruptor - 8 votes

Doom 64 was released as a brand new Doom campaign for the Nintendo 64, set after the events of Final Doom. While not extremely successful or lauded upon its release, the game has become somewhat of a cult classic over the years for its difficulty and atmosphere, in part due to a spooky ambient soundtrack from Aubrey Hodges. The game's sleeper status peaked in recent years when Bethesda dropped a remaster of the game in 2020 for modern platforms at a bargain price.

Beat Doom 64 or its remaster to earn a badge. Badge coming soon...

Whether you're too young to die or death incarnate, feel free to post a #BeatIt screenshot here to celebrate your achievement.

My apologies, as I am sure this is covered somewhere, but are submissions accepted after the month is over? I'm playing a lot of vintage games, but I am pretty particular about the order, so it'll be a miracle if I happen to play something at the right time.

You can any game we've played since 2018 to earn a badge. Its just nice to play them the month thereof because we're all likely discussing it, reviewing it, and urging each other on.

But if you suddenly decide to pick up the original Outrun this month, you can earn the Outrun badge.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Got it. Thank you. I think the only one I can prove so far is Castlevania:

https://steamcommunity.com/id/yossydesune/screensh...

OP has been flipped over for 2023. Check out the 2022 section for a recap of how everyone did this year.

We'll vote on the franchise challenge for 2023 (or decide we don't want to do it) on January 20, alongside the February GOTM vote. In the meantime, start Doom 64'ing!

Oh I already started 😃 it turns out imma need a new series S controller though since the right bumper is
integral to this game. (My RB stopped working) Otherwise I woulda at least gotten past level 2. I still can I just can’t pick up the berserk
item since I can’t switch out of hand to hand back to shotgun or anything else.

Btw if you don’t know Doom 64 is “free” ish on Gamepass. It also looks really good and is smooth af.
This is such a good way to kick off the year 💜

I finally put some time in with Doom 64 last night. I've heard the game is dark, but is it supposed to be this dark? I've never had to turn the in-game brightness up all the way for a game before.

I like that they're doing some cool stuff with scripting and in-game events. The Terraformer had a few of these, like when the eponymous machine finally activates. It already feels pretty brutal, though, beyond the usual "there's way too many demons here" challenge. I can't imagine what it turns into if my palms are already starting to sweat.

This is the point in the month where I'd call out everyone that's earned a badge so far. It doesn't sound like anybody's there yet, though a few of us have started. My January has been pretty crazy and I haven't been doing much cheerleading, so that's on me. Heck, I haven't even made a badge yet. I should probably get around to that...

image

There we go. Keep shooting demons, and we'll check back in at the end of the month.

Let's start taking nominations for the February Game of the Month. No themes next month; we're looking for any retro game that y'all want to play.

Also, if you want to nominate a game series for the Annual Franchise Challenge, feel free to do so at the same time. We're looking for classic retro games or series, probably on the longer side, that reward a permanent badge next to your name when completed.

We'll start voting on January 26 and call the winners on February. Let's hear what everyone wants to play!

I nominate Final Fantasy VI. On SNES, DS, Pixel Remaster, the works.

I’m only on stage 14 of Doom 64 so far.

Some levels early on are the kind that make you never wanna play it again though.
Maybe higher brightness would have helped but there’s 3D platform elements that
Almost don’t belong in a Doom game EVER at least not a “classic” Doom.
Especially not without a dedicated jump button.

Yeah, I was stunned to see all the gaps that you have to run across in the second level. That'll make your hands shake.

Level 6 is the worst so far with the platformer nonsense, but yeah after the first level basically it stops being “just a classic Doom game”.
After the first “set” of levels and it kinda starts over the game becomes much more enjoyable for awhile.
I really gotta get back onto 14 again so I can slog through that one. (The monsters are more difficult with way
less ammo than you need to move forward easily, it’s almost like a puzzle with your health and ammo
to get through levels like this).

It is still a good game it’s just not as free flowing as one would hope for. It’s definitely less
“intentionally annoying” than Mega Man 7 was but there are still plenty of places to get stuck
for awhile.

I'll nominate Super Mario Galaxy.

I loved this game when I played through a few years ago.

For Feb. I’ll nominate Wizards & Warriors NES.

I'm unlikely to play Doom64 b/c I beat it in '21, the PC port, so I don't recall it being overly dark when I played it. I like the vibrant colors of the tweaked enemies. I don't know that I would classify it as 'classic' Doom, but it was close, certainly closer than Doom 3.

Yeah I never got into Doom 3. I know I have at least rented or owned a copy.
Maybe I still do have a copy idk it’s just not my thing. I don’t really like any
modern fps games either.

There are spots in Doom 64 (the remake at least)
that are way too dark, and you’re basically blind in
a couple of spots which is a really messed up gameplay “mechanic” to make the
game harder or more annoying or whatever. I’m thinking of a spot in stage 2 I think
And another in stage 6 in particular with this complaint.

Just spent 45 minutes on Level 6 and still haven't beaten it.

Got pretty far in it with one attempt, but then I fell down the bottomless pit filled with those invisible enemies, and couldn't figure out how to get out. If there is even a way out.

Every other time, I just did a terrible time of strafing to avoid the Hell Knights. Having a hard time juggling the shoulder buttons and the rear trigger on the N64 controller.

How many levels are in this game? *checks* Hoo boy, this might take a while.

Pretty sure there's a way to

out of that pit.

Us diurnal mammals prefer light sources when we look for things.

Yeah I recall that pit was annoying even in the tweaked PC version that apparently has better lighting in sections.

Snappy wrote:

I would like to retract this nomination and instead nominate Sword of Sodan . A game that is pretty terrible, but in a way that we can all enjoy and commiserate about? Maybe??.. and it will be like super props to anyone that actually beats it. :D

Snappy wrote:

I added it as an additional nomination. Today's our last day to nominate, and we haven't hit the minimum of five yet.

Psst... Nominate some more games!

So, I tweaked my button profile and switched A to "Shoot" and B to "Use", moving the weapon switching to the C pad. This made strafing a whole lot easier and was the nudge I needed to get through Level 6. Made it to Level 8 last night and died at the final ambush. Oh whelp. Keep on truckin'.

I nominate Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, any Mario vs. Donkey Kong game, any Harvest Moon game, Pikmin 2, Tetris 99, and Chip's Challenge. Though I already nominated Final Fantasy VI, so you can ignore those if you have to. =]

Other than Tetris 99, those all sound fine.

Can you finish Harvest Moon? I thought it was like Animal Crossing and you just take care of your farm forever.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I’ve never played one, so I don’t know myself. I’m sure there’s a fan-established “end point” where nothing new happens anymore or the credits roll before letting you go back to the farm. I’ll look into it.

@Renaissance2K I’ve asked around and it seems most of the Harvest Moon games do have credits rolls or an end goal to reach. Most of them let you play indefinitely if you have the willpower, but in some cases, you have to set your own realistic goal and declare the game done after that’s reached. The SNES one does have multiple definitive endings, and the N64 one has a 3-year evaluation that you build up to (not three years IRT). The subreddit believes most Harvest Moons are feasible to beat in a month. Hope that helps.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Works for me!