one-armed dwarf Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Zero discard joker is great with those ride the bus type ones that scale, but 2 pair is hard to work with I feel unless you also have a way of making your hand large or lots of specific tarot and spectral combos. I've been weening myself off 2 pair a bit. What I'd really like to try is win some hands with 3 and 4 of a kind. I hardly ever use those, they're hard to get started with. But probably work really well with things like the 8 ball. So what I'm trying to do sometimes is copy and change cards into 8s in anticipation of being able to use that joker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 On the Blue Stake I ran with the +1 per hand -1 per discard Joker - so predominantly played High Card or Single Pairs, as I'd also got the Splash (score every card) and a x2 Foil (so I could churn cards by scoring on them and not discarding, so ended up with a +65 mult on that one Joker) - then I bought loads of Tarots to get multipliers on loads of basic cards - that seemed to scale together pretty well too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Had some fun with the Plasma deck (which equalises your Chips & Multi before scoring) - and got the Boot (+mult per $) & Bull (+chips per $) joker together with Rocket (+$ per Ante) - so I escalated up hands by having loads of money in the bank. Anyway burst through my highest hand score too 3.3m And unlocked a couple of new jokers too (+1m hand, $400+ in bank). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Finished the Orange Stake, now just the Gold Stake to go.... I found that it was just easier to quit and start over on the later stakes if you don't pick up a scaling or x multiplier joker in the first few antes - as you really need to be able to max out your score in later rounds (found that if I just carried on hoping for the best then I'd crash out on Ante 6 or 7, unless you hold some jokers that increase their effectiveness over time / combos played etc). Feel like moving on soon - as not only does Avowed tempt me, but I just saw Owlcat's latest RPG, Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40k), has just appeared on Gamepass too, so that's as good a reason to leave Balatro behind Well, maybe just one more round..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Change of PEGI rating after appeal (was 18, now 12) : https://www.theverge.com/news/618342/balatro-pegi-rating-appeal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Fuck, now it's just a game for babies Anyway this is on gamepass now so Nag can get in on the fun (Not that I'm saying he's a baby, that wasn't what I was going for) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Nope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 You are like how I was before I tried it with the hopes of telling people it was shite. It's not. Best game of last year. Honestly I think this game will sort of be timeless, the concept of it is so solid that there's literally no reason people won't be playing in 20 years time. I can't say that about Wukong or something similar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 2 hours ago, Sly Reflex said: no reason people won't be playing in 20 years time. I can't say that about Wukong or something similar. While I get what you’re saying I don’t think that’s a good metric for how good a game is. Im not playing anything from 16-32bit, PS2 era etc. really these days but that doesn’t mean they weren’t fantastic games and experiences. While I like Balatro I’m still not as fond on it as most so I guess it’s easier for me to say but I feel I’m getting a much more fulfilling experience from something like Wukong than this. Balatro feels more like junk food. It gets the job done & gives instant gratification but after I’ve played it I don’t give it another thought. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Balatro is the Citizen Kane of junk food gaming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 3 hours ago, Sly Reflex said: You are like how I was before I tried it with the hopes of telling people it was shite. I don't want to tell anyone it's shite... it's not my thing though so I just don't care.🤷♂️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Agreed. Its still junk food gaming. 4 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said: Balatro is the Citizen Kane of junk food gaming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 The important thing here though is you actually tried it. And also, I think it is a good metric. When you look at how far games have come from the 16/32bit era. How many of them are actually good now? Because outside of a select few I would have a hard time going "Yep, these are great games". Not because they are not, but they were hampered by how design was at the time and how we interacted with games as a whole. And I say that as someone that is playing games 10 to 15 years, there's very definite trend upwards on how playable something is the more modern it is, standards just increase and whilst the games may be hit or miss, the concepts and designs that make them control how they do and work how they do has probably never been better. Outside of overtly complex controls in some games where they are trying to pack everything on a controller I can't think of any limiting factor that would hinder games of the future in that regard. Really all I can think of is the jump we had into twinstick controls to control 3D things, that opened up a lot. I don;'t know if we'll ever see a jump like that again. And that's where Balatro strips everything back. Simple concept. Simple ruleset. Bare minimum controls. Lots of depth and permutations of outcomes. Sure it might not be something you sit down to play once the newness wears off, but it's just so easy to dip in that you can throw a round in whilst you're waiting for the washer to finish, or while the gf watches some shite on tv. The design on it is so robust that it fits so many niches that a lot of other games fall flat at. I don't play Balatro all that much now compared to what I used to do. 30 minutes across the past two weeks according to my steam stats. It's a hand here or there while I'm waiting on dinner cooking, or for someone to call. And that for me is the beauty of it. It's so small you can keep it installed and just fire it up whenever you have a spare 10. Even though I might not be playing it, I think about it quite a lot more than I really should. It's a lovely little bit of game design that people will look to over a lot of the contemporaries that released in the same year. It totally wouldn't surprise me if someone took mechanics from it and remixed them in somewhere for a different game not involving playing cards. I think it's a game that has potentially cracked the door for a lot of people to sneak through and build ideas on for their own spins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 I really disagree with the first 2 paragraphs. Design trends shift and change and sure there are certain things you can point to as maybe being the wrong direction, like what is going on with the control schemes in early From Soft game (like PSX era). But just cause something isn't inline with our current standard doesn't always mean it's wrong, it can also just be different. Sometimes the differences might include things which are really interesting, particularly as our current generation of gaming gets more and more standardised with its treatment of camera angles, interactions and control schemes. RE4 was super influential but it didn't stop RE2 from being an incredible game, it just made it a bit harder to immerse yourself in if you are overly accustomed to the kinds of games RE4 brought in its wake. But that's more a player patience issue in my opinion I think the skill people have to develop a bit is to develop an appetite for different contexts that lead to things being made differently. I don't know who I'm agreeing or disagreeing with here though, I'm not really being facetious in calling Balatro Citizen Kane Macdonalds food, I think in moderation that can be cool. I think lots of games are junk food though, FFVII Rebirth is as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 4 minutes ago, Sly Reflex said: The important thing here though is you actually tried it. No... it isn't. I don't like Football, so it's a fair assumption I'm not going to like Football Manager... should I try that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Football isn't the correct analogy tbh, it's more like trying crack cocaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Maybe. I don't like card games. I cannot stand poker. I like Balatro. It's really that good. It took me by surprise because by all rights I should have hated it. And besides, what do you have to lose, it's on gamepass. If you life it really that jam packed you can't give something 30 minutes of your time when you're arguing with me here, you have very weird priorities. 😜 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 I'm playing Avowed while arguing here...👍... and let's turn that around, if you can afford to give every little thing 30 minutes of your time while thinking you're going to hate it you either have way too much time on your hands or you're a masochist. 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 This thread has a little 'Hot! 🔥' icon now because Nag is so hot for playing Balatro! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 I hate you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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