I played Titan Chaser, an indie game where you play as a young woman who is hired to drive around the outskirts of a city at night to divert any kaiju she finds away from civilisation. You'll be ordered to deal with a number of different kaiju and your job is to get to the designated locations and figure out how to get rid of them without causing any harm.
It's a very atmospheric and oddly relaxing game. A majority of the time has you in your car at night, looking at your map every so often in order to figure out where you're supposed to be heading to. There's even a radio with a number of original synth tracks and full episodes of an actual American radio horror drama from the 30's called Lights Out. The main character will also drop a line or two of lore regarding the town, and her thoughts on the matters at hand every now and again. The game is only a couple hours long, with each mission only taking about 15-20 minutes to complete, along with a short epilogue and a very weird Halloween episode.
The voice acting is... not the best, It feels like someone reading from a script and the VA's tone of voice never really changes despite how stressful certain situations get at times. The map is fairly big, but you only really see maybe three quarters of it. The game also just kinda drops you in with no real instructions on how anything works, which led me to a lot of fiddling around especially when it came to the car.
Overall I found it to be a flawed, but unique and charming experience, and something I'd like to see more of.
Saw an episode of Dead End recently, where the teens are tasked with breaking up a Sweet 16 party down in hell.
It reminded me of Afterparty so I jumped into that.
Decided to revisit it to see if I was in a better mood for it, or figure out why I just couldn't get myself past the first chapter, and I think I've got it: I just don't think the gameplay lives up to what the script needs it to be... among a few other things.
I've gotten past the first chapter again, but it's still a bit of a struggle to get through.
I don't have that hook or sense of mystery that Oxenfree had from the start. There's a little of that with the question of how the teens died, but it doesn't seem like a major issue & pales in comparison to the mysterious ghost haunting you unwittingly unleash in the other.
There's very, very little interactivity or eye-candy with the world. Oxenfree had the radio you could fiddle around with. It could find some music channels, secret Morse code I think, and also Info channels to learn the lore about the landmarks you encounter. Afterparty has... occasional demon text messages appearing on screen? Other than that it's linear as hell (oof).
The set-up of different areas is quite long, and it feels like some of them should have something special to do, or look at at the edges of the islands. But all I could find so far is the same taxi lightpole every time.
Exploration/walking around has taken a step down. I can remember there being a little 2.5D traversal in Oxenfree. A little of going further into the background or further into the foreground to navigate the world. But Afterparty only has left-right, feeling even weirder when the scenes are quite wide going towards the screen.
There's no memorable music. It's maybe a long drone, or some slow, quiet chorus, but scenes are eerily quiet when walking around. Definitely not like Oxenfree when you had this bop playing.
The biggest sin of all this game has is that it's script is pretty great. Actors all do a great job so far. But I'm just not being sucked into their long, wordy conversations about how much hell sucks or their reactions to things happenning around them when all I can do is stand around and look at small, simple-looking character models.
Oh yeah, and this game has the weirdest audio mixing I've ever heard!! No other game does this, and I can barely fix it.
In my little surround sound setup: Speaker at front, two beside, two behind me; The characters' dialogue all comes from behind me, and which side they're located on the screen is which speaker is strongest.
I can slightly fix it by going to the default stereo mode, but most of the dialogue still comes out only from behind my head. It's super jarring to say the least.
Recently, in anticipation of the Guardians Holiday Special and hype for the upcoming 3rd movie, I started Eidos Montreal's Guardians of the Galaxy game.
It's pretty good! I'm only a handful of chapters, handful of hours in, but it's a great start to a wacky space action-adventure, with some unique touches that'll make it memorable.
For one thing, the script is really impressive. As you’re chilling in your ship, or heading to your objective, the Guardians will be talking to each other. A lot. All of the time. And they will very rarely shut their trap.
They have a lot of dialogue to fill time, which is very impressive from a writing standpoint and voice acting too. It's sometimes small bickering you have to clear up, or talking about your objective, or anything else that someone might bring up.
There are also quite a few moments where if you lag behind they will complain, or if you take the wrong path in a fork of a road, they'll tease you about it, or if you venture into a side-cave they'll address that too.
There's actually only a small handful of voice lines for combat encounters which is unfortunate, but I guess sacrifices had to be made somewhere.
Ah yeah, and taking a cue from Telltale's games, there's some small choices to make along the way of the story. Most of it is during exploration, just some simple dialogue choices to make as your group converses. But others are more major, like what to do to formulate a plan, or when faced with the space cops. I don't know how much the choices matter or how they might change things later, but I'll have to wait and see.
Ah yes, and silence IS a valid option... most of the time. I totally messed up the very first major choice, by not picking any contraband to hide, which I've heard is pretty major regarding how a few fights play out later - sot hopefully I'm not too screwed by that.
The graphics are really detailed, some cool designs of wild fauna and flora from other planets
And another really impressive thing is the facial motion-capture, at least in most cutscenes. Characters have such expressive faces, you can really see the slight worry in Peter's face as it's revealed his old flame now has a daughter, and return to a confident guy as he brushes it off. Some really great animation work.
I'm leaving the gameplay -- the main combat -- till last, since it's nothing too cool to talk about. I'm still early on in the game, so I don't have much side-abilities to use against enemies, but as you play as Peter Quill, it seems like everything is going to be a variation of shooting, squeezing those controller triggers. That might be expected, but it's still a little disappointing that'll probably be all I'll do.
Oh yeah and there's an entire Original Rock Album created for this game (and flesh out Peter's backstory) and that is such an impressive feat for a licensed title that already has a bunch of licensed songs to its name.
Also, just a few minor issues I've got with some unchangeable things:
Took me a bit to get used to yet another voice cast for the Guardians, and while I like them now, I'm not entirely sold on Peter Quill. His VA has this... "Totally Rad Surfer Dude" kind of speech. It's very deep and "cool" sounding, but it sounds almost fake to me. Like he's putting on a voice. Eh, I might just need more time.
Quill also has the weirdest jump animation I've seen for such a detailed action-adventure title.
There's no lead-up to the jump. He literally just lifts off the ground with the tap of a button. It's sticking out like a sore thumb, I don't know why they built it that way.
Playing Call Of Duty Mobile (Zombies) i very like. Besides, I watched youtube and googled I found some best games online that can earn items if you install and play it for a certain amount of time. If anyone needs can contact me.
The writing and narrative in this game is top notch. The story, the characters, the humor and feel, and even the pacing, are all executed in such a way that you can feel the heart and passion behind it. The banter between the characters, whether it's on the ship or during the mission, is so fun and gives so much personality to the game. While I agree the VA behind Quill is a bit lacking, the other characters are done so well that you can really feel the chemistry behind it. That's a great combo of voice acting and writing right there. The narrative director of this game, Mary DeMarle (also worked on Deus Ex), is going to be the narrative director/writer behind the next Mass Effect game. That was the reason why I wanted to play this game, since I heard nothing but good things about its narrative. If this is anything to go by, the next ME game is in very good hands.
The gameplay...oh boy. For me, the writing is like a 9/10, but the gameplay is about a 3 or a 4/10. IT's boring, it's bland, it's completely forgettable. With a story as great as this, I should not feel the need to have to drag myself to pick the game back up after a break, but that's how it felt with this game. Clearly all of the game's soul went into the writing, because it sure as hell didn't show up in its gameplay.
Recently, in anticipation of the Guardians Holiday Special and hype for the upcoming 3rd movie, I started Eidos Montreal's Guardians of the … moreGalaxy game.
It's pretty good! I'm only a handful of chapters, handful of hours in, but it's a great start to a wacky space action-adventure, with some unique touches that'll make it memorable.
For one thing, the script is really impressive. As you’re chilling in your ship, or heading to your objective, the Guardians will be talking to each other. A lot. All of the time. And they will very rarely shut their trap.
They have a lot of dialogue to fill time, which is very impressive from a writing standpoint and voice acting too. It's sometimes small bickering you have to clear up, or talking about your objective, or anything else that someone might bring up.
There are also quite a few moments where if you lag behind they will complain, or if you take the wrong path in a fork of a road, they'll teas… [view original content]
Ooh. I've never played a Deus Ex game, but I've heard they always have some pretty memorable writing and detailed choice-branching.
Makes sense they used her talent, since it is an Eidos title.
Great to hear that the story and characters should stay strong the whole way through. The fact it won Best Narrative at the Game Awards last year was surprising but got me very interested in how good the writing really was from this kinda random comic-book game released that year.
The writing and narrative in this game is top notch. The story, the characters, the humor and feel, and even the pacing, are all executed in… more such a way that you can feel the heart and passion behind it. The banter between the characters, whether it's on the ship or during the mission, is so fun and gives so much personality to the game. While I agree the VA behind Quill is a bit lacking, the other characters are done so well that you can really feel the chemistry behind it. That's a great combo of voice acting and writing right there. The narrative director of this game, Mary DeMarle (also worked on Deus Ex), is going to be the narrative director/writer behind the next Mass Effect game. That was the reason why I wanted to play this game, since I heard nothing but good things about its narrative. If this is anything to go by, the next ME game is in very good hands.
The gameplay...oh boy. For me, the writing is like a 9/10, but the gameplay … [view original content]
It's just the one time. I doubt I'll have the willpower to do a pacifist boss run (break structure instead of health/takedowns). 10 victories in Hades was already super tough.
At least now this means I've unlocked the Goals and Modifiers systems, which all the cosmetics and games updates this year have been focused on/locked behind!
I finally finally finally beat Sifu!!
It's just the one time. I doubt I'll have the willpower to do a pacifist boss run (break struct… moreure instead of health/takedowns). 10 victories in Hades was already super tough.
At least now this means I've unlocked the Goals and Modifiers systems, which all the cosmetics and games updates this year have been focused on/locked behind!
Started playing Blacktail, an indie first person open world game where you play as the Yaga, an outcast looking to find the whereabouts of her sister. There's a morality system that's affected by choices like dialogue, who you help, killing animals, etc. I'm enjoying it so far and it's surprisingly difficult, I've already died quite a bit lol. The game kind of feels like a first person version of Kena: Bridge of Spirits considering the storybook like fantastical elements and the corruption that plagues the land, and of course the difficulty and combat.
Years late, but I finally hopped on the Persona 5 train. I usually don't like beefy games (and P5 has a 100+ hour playtime), but I'm really catching onto this game. The battle mechanics tying into the social sim gameplay is a neat twist that I wasn't expecting to work so well!
It's a load of fun
The improvements to swinging, tricks, side-missions, mini-sidemissions, crimes in progress. The winter vibes too... all great.
My only complaint so far is that Miles' combat animations look weird. A lot of his animations show how much of a novice he is at acrobatics and superheroism, which I like, but the combat stuff doesn't seem to flow so well and looks weird to me.
Also Peter's new face is growing on me. He looks like an early 20s guy. Though I think they smoothed over his face a bit too much, plus the face+iconic suit and iconic Lowenthal voice keeps throwing me for a loop.
I'll still, always miss John Bubniak's face.
Also also just heard a JJJ podcast audio log, and Jonah says the F-word. Bleeped, but he says it. 10/10 IGN
On Boxing day I went out to find either NFS Unbound (50$) or Returnal (40$) because they had some great sale prices. Unfortunately (since Boxing Day sales start much earlier than boxing day now) I think a lot of people had already grabbed most copies from stores, so it became a challenge of just picking up what I could find.
And that game was Returnal.
I've been having such a fun time with this title.
It's a roguelike, bullet-hell, third-person shooter. Wrapped up in a sci-fi time-loop thriller, about a space-exploration-scout named Selene who crash lands on an alien planet, and ends up waking up at said crash site every time she dies.
A little explanation of my most recent successful run, cut short in my hubris. It hasn't taken me very long to get good at this game, surprisingly. And have a great roll of items and artifacts to find.
I have no idea if I got some super duper lucky RNG, or I'm just very good at the game, but it hadn't taken me very many deaths (only 3 actually!!) to get used to the game mechanics and get into a fantastic stride with surviving and improvising during massive, dangerous fights.
There are plenty of artifacts to find that improve certain aspects of your character. Consumables that can greatly help avoid danger or malfunctions, and lots of exploration to find as many health pickups, money, and items as possible through locked rooms and hidden areas.
I was extremely surprised by this, since the only other Roguelike I've played is Hades, and I was TERRIBLE at it. It took me so so long to even finish level one...
But here, in Returnal? I had only just started unlocking more of the story and mystery of the game, that after exlporing Biome 1 to its fullest, I came across the Boss room.
And I beat him on my very first try!!
Okay, must be a fluke. I enter Biome 2, expecting to die to an new enemy at every corner. I might've come close, but I got great luck with ability buffs and health pickups that I avoided that...
And I beat Boss #2 on my very first try!! OMG I AM GODLY
Unfortunately my run did come to an end in Biome 3, near the end, though not from the boss -- though I could have very well fought it and died -- I got too confident with my exploration and combat skills that I went backtracking for any items or keys that could unlock one more door to find items before I walk into the Boss chamber... but I was way too careless and didn't pay attention to the fight and my health bar that I died....
At least now I've got tons of new equipment I can find and use for a new fresh run that I can take advantage of shortcuts.
Here's a bit of my Boss 1 fight.
Here's my full Boss 2 fight.
Here's my stats at the end of Biome/Boss 2, I was doing very well by that point.
I'm sure none of this would have been possible without their Suspend Cycle feature which lets you quit the game and pickup exactly where you left off at. It has really helped me explore and log off exactly when I want to.
I can't believe this game launched without it and they expected people to get through the first act of the game (so I've heard) in one play-session. They'd either need to rush through and be severely underpowered/prepared, or take too long exploring and have to sacrifice their run for another one.
I finally got around to finishing Blacktail and I really enjoyed it! The characters are fun to interact it and fairly charming, the voice acting is good for the most part (especially with Yaga and the Mask who are fantastic), the world is fun to explore, and the story is pretty interesting, albeit a little convoluted towards the end. I also really like the fairytale aesthetic and atmosphere of the game.
There's a bunch of sidequests, bosses, and hidden areas/items to discover, and the design of the locations all have a different look and feel to them. The game has a bunch of choices that will lead to different outcomes, mostly in terms of gameplay and your relationship with certain characters. I do however think that some of the choices are presented as being a bit too black and white. It's very much be pure good or pure evil, with very little grey. Combat can be a little frustrating at times, and I do wish that there was more variety in movement and attacks. Honestly my biggest complaint is how swearing is used in the game. It's feels very edgy and out of place.
Overall I thought it was great, and it's one of my favourite games of 2022! It's fun, charming, kinda spooky, a little jank but a very impressive debut game from a team of indie devs.
I am replaying an old game called The Saboteur. This is the most underrated game ever made, it's an open world WW2 game set in France and the gameplay is a mix between GTA and Assassin's Creed.
Jealous! I really want to get my hands on a copy of this game in the future, its always on people's lists of underrated games with a lot of good style, and it sure looks like it!
I am replaying an old game called The Saboteur. This is the most underrated game ever made, it's an open world WW2 game set in France and the gameplay is a mix between GTA and Assassin's Creed.
Jealous! I really want to get my hands on a copy of this game in the future, its always on people's lists of underrated games with a lot of good style, and it sure looks like it!
Been playing through Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Finished Mass Effect 1 today. Played bits of each game when I was a kid about a decade ago but I can’t remember much so playing through the trilogy now is basically a new experience.
Been playing through Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Finished Mass Effect 1 today. Played bits of each game when I was a kid about a decade ago but I can’t remember much so playing through the trilogy now is basically a new experience.
Oooh, man, this game ticks so many boxes for me in the "light cosmic horror", "inexplainable reality-altering events", and "cryptic, layered personal story" realms.
Despite my 36 deaths, I've kept coming back to the game, time after time, to learn more about the plot, Selene herself, explore and find more tools to use to improve my runs... it's all great, and I really like the Tower of Sisyphus endless mode too. Reminds me a lot of Hades, and how room-by-room focused it is with short, fast-paced gameplay. It also adds some tidbits to the main story/Selene's inner demons at play, which is really cool.
By this point, I've seen all the biomes, bosses, and I now have a few final secret things to find to be able to do the Secret/True Ending.
There are a lot of cryptic, metaphorical, overlapping things that can give me multiple interpretations of the story and what's going on with the time-loops and Selene's dark past, but I love that, and think it's a great theme for a game involving an unseen number of deaths, spiraling into one another, blurring the lines between the start and end of your turmoil...
Everyone survived. Did all the loyalty missions, bought all the upgrades except for some prototypes, scanned every planet and think I did all side missions before continuing with the main story, did everything I could to make sure. All I had left after recruiting Legion was his loyalty mission except for Arrival DLC.
For the tech specialist in the vents I was afraid to use Tali since I romanced her. I used Kasumi instead to play it safe since I figured a DLC character wouldn't have as big of an impact in ME3 anyway, and for the fireteam leader I chose Garrus twice since I trusted him the most although I got worried that might increase risk of him dying. Had Mordin escort the crewmates since it seemed fitting as he was a doctor and he could tend to any injuries they had. Chose Samara for the biotic specialist because she suggested herself and I wanted keep Miranda on my squad. Miranda and Legion came with me throughout the whole mission, wanted to make the most of Legion since he joined so late and Miranda felt more important to the plot and could have unique dialogue. My Shepard was a soldier so I wanted a tech and biotic on my squad for the final battle for balance.
Double hell yeah. I usually end up keeping Tali with me as, according to the stats, she is only behind Mordin as the most likely to die. I don’t remember all the different variation and points used to determine how strong the fire teams are, but I remember Legion (who was my vent specialist) being one of the big ones, so I wanted to keep him as part of the main group. But bringing Miranda is great for the final mission because she has a few lines for The Illusive Man. But it’s good that you didn’t choose Miranda as the biotic as I believe she isn’t a strong enough one and would have gotten someone killed. The best biotics to use are either Samara or Jack I believe.
I've been playing Hitman 3 which I got during the winter Steam sale and have been enjoying it immensely. The maps are big but not overwhelming, there's a ton of different options and pathways in each map, and you're given the freedom to deal with each target in a dozen different ways. I've spent over 50 hours on just the base six maps alone. The fact that they're giving away most of the DLC and all the maps from the previous two games for free to all players means I'll probably be playing this game for a while.
Finished Cyberpunk 2077 after about 80 or so hours. Played as the male V, romanced Panam, and got the ending of asking her for help and going with the Aldecaldos.
Overall, I thought it was a really good game. I loved exploring and driving through the various parts of Night City. The gameplay, while not groundbreaking, was fun for the most part. Side content was a bit repetitive, but I can’t say I didn’t have fun.
I will say that I wasn’t as into the story and characters as I thought I would be, or at least not to the same extent that had people saying it was some of the best they’ve ever seen. Though granted I tend to do all of the side content I can before going to do the main story, so having that much time between the story missions probably didn’t help with my enjoyment, would probably need a second run through to truly appreciate it. Characters were fine. Silverhand was fantastic, Judy or River were probably my favorite (Judy had the stronger writing, but River had the better character mission/story).
The game still has a lot of glitches and bugs, but compared to some of the stuff I saw from launch, it is definitely a lot better and more polished. However, the game did crash a few times (thankfully it saves pretty frequently) and there were times where the bugs were pretty funny. I feel as though the skill tree and upgrading system could have been better and more rewarding, because it can be a bit grindy at times to try and level up and get the skills you need, especially with how much side content there is.
Been playing their new Freelancer game mode since this past weekend and I've been having loads of fun. Not really recommended to get into it until you learn most of the maps, but it is a fun, random, endless Roguelike experience that's really challenging me (and brutally killing me).
But you also get a customizable Safehouse to fool around a bit with which I find very fun.
I've been playing Hitman 3 which I got during the winter Steam sale and have been enjoying it immensely. The maps are big but not overwhelmi… moreng, there's a ton of different options and pathways in each map, and you're given the freedom to deal with each target in a dozen different ways. I've spent over 50 hours on just the base six maps alone. The fact that they're giving away most of the DLC and all the maps from the previous two games for free to all players means I'll probably be playing this game for a while.
I tried Freelancer mode once and immediately failed lmao. I'll make my way through all the campaigns first before I make another attempt, which is gonna take a while since I'm trying to do every assassination challenge for all the missions as well.
Hell yeeeeeessss, freakin love those games.
Been playing their new Freelancer game mode since this past weekend and I've been having load… mores of fun. Not really recommended to get into it until you learn most of the maps, but it is a fun, random, endless Roguelike experience that's really challenging me (and brutally killing me).
But you also get a customizable Safehouse to fool around a bit with which I find very fun.
Good luck! I recently went back and completed all the Assassination (and Discovery and Feats) challenges I'd missed or slacked on since Hitman 3's release -- mostly since I'd already done them in 1 & 2, but they never shared progression so... -- anyway it was still a time-consuming and frankly tedious affair with how specific some of them are, but probably best to not cram them all in 2 weeks' play sessions. XD
Best rule of thumb is to at least get Mastery 20 and finish all the Mission Stories, they provide the most interesting kills and lore on your Targets (though there's usually quite a few other secret methods, not easily given to you)
The maps, puzzle-solving-stealth, kill opportunities, are really fun and well-made though, so I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! This World of Assassination update is finally the BEST decision they've made, granting everyone all the missions from the trilogy, so you can experience most of all the content made so far!
In 'Hitman 2', i think you'll find a certain actor a cool addition
'Tis Mr. John Hopkins, in a very menacing low English accent. (You also hear A LOT of Gavin Hammon as some of the American guard NPCs in early maps) Oh I love this game series so much
I tried Freelancer mode once and immediately failed lmao. I'll make my way through all the campaigns first before I make another attempt, which is gonna take a while since I'm trying to do every assassination challenge for all the missions as well.
Best rule of thumb is to at least get Mastery 20 and finish all the Mission Stories, they provide the most interesting kills and lore on your Targets (though there's usually quite a few other secret methods, not easily given to you)
Yep I've been mastering them and going through all the missions stories and hidden challenges! Whether it be figuring them out myself or looking at guides.
This World of Assassination update is finally the BEST decision they've made, granting everyone all the missions from the trilogy, so you can experience most of all the content made so far!
Unfortunately it still does lock you out of a handful of missions, including the other two sniper maps, unless you get the deluxe version which I didn't. I'll probably get it once I've squeezed enough content out of it.
I also have to say that I despise that I have to be online to properly play the game. That's fuckin' dumb.
You also hear A LOT of Gavin Hammon as some of the American guard NPCs in early maps
Good luck! I recently went back and completed all the Assassination (and Discovery and Feats) challenges I'd missed or slacked on since Hitm… morean 3's release -- mostly since I'd already done them in 1 & 2, but they never shared progression so... -- anyway it was still a time-consuming and frankly tedious affair with how specific some of them are, but probably best to not cram them all in 2 weeks' play sessions. XD
Best rule of thumb is to at least get Mastery 20 and finish all the Mission Stories, they provide the most interesting kills and lore on your Targets (though there's usually quite a few other secret methods, not easily given to you)
The maps, puzzle-solving-stealth, kill opportunities, are really fun and well-made though, so I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! This World of Assassination update is finally the BEST decision they've made, granting everyone all the missions from the trilogy, so you can experience most of all the… [view original content]
I finished Mass Effect 3, loved it and it's one of the only games aside from Red Dead Redemption 2 that's affected me this much emotionally.
The ending I had known for years was controversial, but I'm uh... not sure how I feel about it.
You've actually got the "better" version of the ending, with all the extended cut and added content BioWare went in and added after the fact. What I heard, and some of this may or may not even be true, was that at Casey Hudson (the game director) and Mac Walters (lead writer) had to hammer out and change the ending at almost the last minute, to the point where it was practically unfinished when it came out. It was essentially pick a choice, Normandy crashes, and that was it. All of the more memorable stuff about it was all added in after the game's release.
Even before that, what the "original" ending was going to be and what they were going to do was and still is unknown. There's been hints and pieces of different concepts and ideas, the most prevalent is the dark energy. It would have tied into what Tali was exploring on Haestrom with the planet's sun decaying, that the Reapers were a corrective force against it. But even that, according to the game's original head writer, was never really fleshed out before he left BioWare. Another had Shepard somehow be an alien, again, it was never really fleshed out. One was luring the Reapers through the mass relays and then detonating all of them, thus severing the galaxy from each other and setting up future sequels. In some way, shape, or form, you can definitely see some of these ideas work there way into the ending they released, but as to what the original ending would have been, it really didn't seem like BioWare knew, and the one they were leaning towards got scrapped for some reason and they went with what we got.
I finished Mass Effect 3, loved it and it's one of the only games aside from Red Dead Redemption 2 that's affected me this much emotionally.
The ending I had known for years was controversial, but I'm uh... not sure how I feel about it.
I love A Plague Tale Innocence and Requiem so much that I decided to buy a book about the history of this IP. I am not the type that buys merch stuff, even from video games that I love. I'm not even a book reader. But this one and Bloodborne are huge exceptions.
I love A Plague Tale Innocence and Requiem so much that I decided to buy a book about the history of this IP. I am not the type that buys me… morerch stuff, even from video games that I love. I'm not even a book reader. But this one and Bloodborne are huge exceptions.
Comments
I played Titan Chaser, an indie game where you play as a young woman who is hired to drive around the outskirts of a city at night to divert any kaiju she finds away from civilisation. You'll be ordered to deal with a number of different kaiju and your job is to get to the designated locations and figure out how to get rid of them without causing any harm.
It's a very atmospheric and oddly relaxing game. A majority of the time has you in your car at night, looking at your map every so often in order to figure out where you're supposed to be heading to. There's even a radio with a number of original synth tracks and full episodes of an actual American radio horror drama from the 30's called Lights Out. The main character will also drop a line or two of lore regarding the town, and her thoughts on the matters at hand every now and again. The game is only a couple hours long, with each mission only taking about 15-20 minutes to complete, along with a short epilogue and a very weird Halloween episode.
The voice acting is... not the best, It feels like someone reading from a script and the VA's tone of voice never really changes despite how stressful certain situations get at times. The map is fairly big, but you only really see maybe three quarters of it. The game also just kinda drops you in with no real instructions on how anything works, which led me to a lot of fiddling around especially when it came to the car.
Overall I found it to be a flawed, but unique and charming experience, and something I'd like to see more of.
Playing Call Of Duty Mobile (Zombies) event while listening to Call Of Duty: Black Ops Zombies (soundtrack) on Spotify .
It brings out Nostalgia.
I remember playing from yesterday 115 and just shredding hordes of zombies with my PPSH41 and duel wielding with two Desert eagles.
Sad thing is why is everyone spitting up in zombies it’s not a good idea…lol like that didn’t learn from zombie movies.🤣
Saw an episode of Dead End recently, where the teens are tasked with breaking up a Sweet 16 party down in hell.
It reminded me of Afterparty so I jumped into that.
Decided to revisit it to see if I was in a better mood for it, or figure out why I just couldn't get myself past the first chapter, and I think I've got it: I just don't think the gameplay lives up to what the script needs it to be... among a few other things.
I've gotten past the first chapter again, but it's still a bit of a struggle to get through.
I don't have that hook or sense of mystery that Oxenfree had from the start. There's a little of that with the question of how the teens died, but it doesn't seem like a major issue & pales in comparison to the mysterious ghost haunting you unwittingly unleash in the other.
There's very, very little interactivity or eye-candy with the world. Oxenfree had the radio you could fiddle around with. It could find some music channels, secret Morse code I think, and also Info channels to learn the lore about the landmarks you encounter. Afterparty has... occasional demon text messages appearing on screen? Other than that it's linear as hell (oof).
Exploration/walking around has taken a step down. I can remember there being a little 2.5D traversal in Oxenfree. A little of going further into the background or further into the foreground to navigate the world. But Afterparty only has left-right, feeling even weirder when the scenes are quite wide going towards the screen.
There's no memorable music. It's maybe a long drone, or some slow, quiet chorus, but scenes are eerily quiet when walking around. Definitely not like Oxenfree when you had this bop playing.
The biggest sin of all this game has is that it's script is pretty great. Actors all do a great job so far. But I'm just not being sucked into their long, wordy conversations about how much hell sucks or their reactions to things happenning around them when all I can do is stand around and look at small, simple-looking character models.
Oh yeah, and this game has the weirdest audio mixing I've ever heard!! No other game does this, and I can barely fix it.
In my little surround sound setup: Speaker at front, two beside, two behind me; The characters' dialogue all comes from behind me, and which side they're located on the screen is which speaker is strongest.
I can slightly fix it by going to the default stereo mode, but most of the dialogue still comes out only from behind my head. It's super jarring to say the least.
Recently, in anticipation of the Guardians Holiday Special and hype for the upcoming 3rd movie, I started Eidos Montreal's Guardians of the Galaxy game.
It's pretty good! I'm only a handful of chapters, handful of hours in, but it's a great start to a wacky space action-adventure, with some unique touches that'll make it memorable.
For one thing, the script is really impressive. As you’re chilling in your ship, or heading to your objective, the Guardians will be talking to each other. A lot. All of the time. And they will very rarely shut their trap.
They have a lot of dialogue to fill time, which is very impressive from a writing standpoint and voice acting too. It's sometimes small bickering you have to clear up, or talking about your objective, or anything else that someone might bring up.
There are also quite a few moments where if you lag behind they will complain, or if you take the wrong path in a fork of a road, they'll tease you about it, or if you venture into a side-cave they'll address that too.
There's actually only a small handful of voice lines for combat encounters which is unfortunate, but I guess sacrifices had to be made somewhere.
Ah yeah, and taking a cue from Telltale's games, there's some small choices to make along the way of the story. Most of it is during exploration, just some simple dialogue choices to make as your group converses. But others are more major, like what to do to formulate a plan, or when faced with the space cops. I don't know how much the choices matter or how they might change things later, but I'll have to wait and see.
Ah yes, and silence IS a valid option... most of the time. I totally messed up the very first major choice, by not picking any contraband to hide, which I've heard is pretty major regarding how a few fights play out later - sot hopefully I'm not too screwed by that.
The graphics are really detailed, some cool designs of wild fauna and flora from other planets
And another really impressive thing is the facial motion-capture, at least in most cutscenes. Characters have such expressive faces, you can really see the slight worry in Peter's face as it's revealed his old flame now has a daughter, and return to a confident guy as he brushes it off. Some really great animation work.
I'm leaving the gameplay -- the main combat -- till last, since it's nothing too cool to talk about. I'm still early on in the game, so I don't have much side-abilities to use against enemies, but as you play as Peter Quill, it seems like everything is going to be a variation of shooting, squeezing those controller triggers. That might be expected, but it's still a little disappointing that'll probably be all I'll do.
Oh yeah and there's an entire Original Rock Album created for this game (and flesh out Peter's backstory) and that is such an impressive feat for a licensed title that already has a bunch of licensed songs to its name.
Also, just a few minor issues I've got with some unchangeable things:
Took me a bit to get used to yet another voice cast for the Guardians, and while I like them now, I'm not entirely sold on Peter Quill. His VA has this... "Totally Rad Surfer Dude" kind of speech. It's very deep and "cool" sounding, but it sounds almost fake to me. Like he's putting on a voice. Eh, I might just need more time.
Quill also has the weirdest jump animation I've seen for such a detailed action-adventure title.
There's no lead-up to the jump. He literally just lifts off the ground with the tap of a button. It's sticking out like a sore thumb, I don't know why they built it that way.
Playing Call Of Duty Mobile (Zombies) i very like. Besides, I watched youtube and googled I found some best games online that can earn items if you install and play it for a certain amount of time. If anyone needs can contact me.
The writing and narrative in this game is top notch. The story, the characters, the humor and feel, and even the pacing, are all executed in such a way that you can feel the heart and passion behind it. The banter between the characters, whether it's on the ship or during the mission, is so fun and gives so much personality to the game. While I agree the VA behind Quill is a bit lacking, the other characters are done so well that you can really feel the chemistry behind it. That's a great combo of voice acting and writing right there. The narrative director of this game, Mary DeMarle (also worked on Deus Ex), is going to be the narrative director/writer behind the next Mass Effect game. That was the reason why I wanted to play this game, since I heard nothing but good things about its narrative. If this is anything to go by, the next ME game is in very good hands.
The gameplay...oh boy. For me, the writing is like a 9/10, but the gameplay is about a 3 or a 4/10. IT's boring, it's bland, it's completely forgettable. With a story as great as this, I should not feel the need to have to drag myself to pick the game back up after a break, but that's how it felt with this game. Clearly all of the game's soul went into the writing, because it sure as hell didn't show up in its gameplay.
Ooh. I've never played a Deus Ex game, but I've heard they always have some pretty memorable writing and detailed choice-branching.
Makes sense they used her talent, since it is an Eidos title.
Great to hear that the story and characters should stay strong the whole way through. The fact it won Best Narrative at the Game Awards last year was surprising but got me very interested in how good the writing really was from this kinda random comic-book game released that year.
I finally finally finally beat Sifu!!
It's just the one time. I doubt I'll have the willpower to do a pacifist boss run (break structure instead of health/takedowns). 10 victories in Hades was already super tough.
At least now this means I've unlocked the Goals and Modifiers systems, which all the cosmetics and games updates this year have been focused on/locked behind!
I started playing this last week. Man it's tough but very good. Such a cool feeling when you start to improve and kick some ass.
Started playing Blacktail, an indie first person open world game where you play as the Yaga, an outcast looking to find the whereabouts of her sister. There's a morality system that's affected by choices like dialogue, who you help, killing animals, etc. I'm enjoying it so far and it's surprisingly difficult, I've already died quite a bit lol. The game kind of feels like a first person version of Kena: Bridge of Spirits considering the storybook like fantastical elements and the corruption that plagues the land, and of course the difficulty and combat.
Years late, but I finally hopped on the Persona 5 train. I usually don't like beefy games (and P5 has a 100+ hour playtime), but I'm really catching onto this game. The battle mechanics tying into the social sim gameplay is a neat twist that I wasn't expecting to work so well!
Got Spidey Miles Morales PS5 for Christmas.
It's a load of fun
The improvements to swinging, tricks, side-missions, mini-sidemissions, crimes in progress. The winter vibes too... all great.
My only complaint so far is that Miles' combat animations look weird. A lot of his animations show how much of a novice he is at acrobatics and superheroism, which I like, but the combat stuff doesn't seem to flow so well and looks weird to me.
Also Peter's new face is growing on me. He looks like an early 20s guy. Though I think they smoothed over his face a bit too much, plus the face+iconic suit and iconic Lowenthal voice keeps throwing me for a loop.
I'll still, always miss John Bubniak's face.
Also also just heard a JJJ podcast audio log, and Jonah says the F-word. Bleeped, but he says it. 10/10 IGN
On Boxing day I went out to find either NFS Unbound (50$) or Returnal (40$) because they had some great sale prices. Unfortunately (since Boxing Day sales start much earlier than boxing day now) I think a lot of people had already grabbed most copies from stores, so it became a challenge of just picking up what I could find.
And that game was Returnal.
I've been having such a fun time with this title.
It's a roguelike, bullet-hell, third-person shooter. Wrapped up in a sci-fi time-loop thriller, about a space-exploration-scout named Selene who crash lands on an alien planet, and ends up waking up at said crash site every time she dies.
A little explanation of my most recent successful run, cut short in my hubris. It hasn't taken me very long to get good at this game, surprisingly. And have a great roll of items and artifacts to find.
I have no idea if I got some super duper lucky RNG, or I'm just very good at the game, but it hadn't taken me very many deaths (only 3 actually!!) to get used to the game mechanics and get into a fantastic stride with surviving and improvising during massive, dangerous fights.
There are plenty of artifacts to find that improve certain aspects of your character. Consumables that can greatly help avoid danger or malfunctions, and lots of exploration to find as many health pickups, money, and items as possible through locked rooms and hidden areas.
I was extremely surprised by this, since the only other Roguelike I've played is Hades, and I was TERRIBLE at it. It took me so so long to even finish level one...
But here, in Returnal? I had only just started unlocking more of the story and mystery of the game, that after exlporing Biome 1 to its fullest, I came across the Boss room.
And I beat him on my very first try!!
Okay, must be a fluke. I enter Biome 2, expecting to die to an new enemy at every corner. I might've come close, but I got great luck with ability buffs and health pickups that I avoided that...
And I beat Boss #2 on my very first try!! OMG I AM GODLY
Unfortunately my run did come to an end in Biome 3, near the end, though not from the boss -- though I could have very well fought it and died -- I got too confident with my exploration and combat skills that I went backtracking for any items or keys that could unlock one more door to find items before I walk into the Boss chamber... but I was way too careless and didn't pay attention to the fight and my health bar that I died....
At least now I've got tons of new equipment I can find and use for a new fresh run that I can take advantage of shortcuts.
Here's a bit of my Boss 1 fight.
Here's my full Boss 2 fight.
Here's my stats at the end of Biome/Boss 2, I was doing very well by that point.
I'm sure none of this would have been possible without their Suspend Cycle feature which lets you quit the game and pickup exactly where you left off at. It has really helped me explore and log off exactly when I want to.
I can't believe this game launched without it and they expected people to get through the first act of the game (so I've heard) in one play-session. They'd either need to rush through and be severely underpowered/prepared, or take too long exploring and have to sacrifice their run for another one.
I finally got around to finishing Blacktail and I really enjoyed it! The characters are fun to interact it and fairly charming, the voice acting is good for the most part (especially with Yaga and the Mask who are fantastic), the world is fun to explore, and the story is pretty interesting, albeit a little convoluted towards the end. I also really like the fairytale aesthetic and atmosphere of the game.
There's a bunch of sidequests, bosses, and hidden areas/items to discover, and the design of the locations all have a different look and feel to them. The game has a bunch of choices that will lead to different outcomes, mostly in terms of gameplay and your relationship with certain characters. I do however think that some of the choices are presented as being a bit too black and white. It's very much be pure good or pure evil, with very little grey. Combat can be a little frustrating at times, and I do wish that there was more variety in movement and attacks. Honestly my biggest complaint is how swearing is used in the game. It's feels very edgy and out of place.
Overall I thought it was great, and it's one of my favourite games of 2022! It's fun, charming, kinda spooky, a little jank but a very impressive debut game from a team of indie devs.
I am replaying an old game called The Saboteur. This is the most underrated game ever made, it's an open world WW2 game set in France and the gameplay is a mix between GTA and Assassin's Creed.
Jealous! I really want to get my hands on a copy of this game in the future, its always on people's lists of underrated games with a lot of good style, and it sure looks like it!
You can get it on GOG. It's currently at a discount, so get it while you still can.
roblox and minecraft
Been playing through Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Finished Mass Effect 1 today. Played bits of each game when I was a kid about a decade ago but I can’t remember much so playing through the trilogy now is basically a new experience.
YAY! Fucking love Mass Effect. Have fun with ME2, that's one of the greatest games of all time (my opinion, of course).
I got the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition for Christmas and have had a blast revisiting the series. Still my favorite trilogy to this day.
Keelah se'lai
Keelah se'lai.
Playing OXENFREE: Netflix Edition despite I’ve played this game a year ago before Netflix owned the rights to the game.
I've finally finished Act 2 of Returnal...
Oooh, man, this game ticks so many boxes for me in the "light cosmic horror", "inexplainable reality-altering events", and "cryptic, layered personal story" realms.
Despite my 36 deaths, I've kept coming back to the game, time after time, to learn more about the plot, Selene herself, explore and find more tools to use to improve my runs... it's all great, and I really like the Tower of Sisyphus endless mode too. Reminds me a lot of Hades, and how room-by-room focused it is with short, fast-paced gameplay. It also adds some tidbits to the main story/Selene's inner demons at play, which is really cool.
By this point, I've seen all the biomes, bosses, and I now have a few final secret things to find to be able to do the Secret/True Ending.
There are a lot of cryptic, metaphorical, overlapping things that can give me multiple interpretations of the story and what's going on with the time-loops and Selene's dark past, but I love that, and think it's a great theme for a game involving an unseen number of deaths, spiraling into one another, blurring the lines between the start and end of your turmoil...
Finished the main story of Mass Effect 2 earlier today and just finished the Arrival DLC. Now onto Mass Effect 3.
How many survived the suicide mission?
Everyone survived. Did all the loyalty missions, bought all the upgrades except for some prototypes, scanned every planet and think I did all side missions before continuing with the main story, did everything I could to make sure. All I had left after recruiting Legion was his loyalty mission except for Arrival DLC.
For the tech specialist in the vents I was afraid to use Tali since I romanced her. I used Kasumi instead to play it safe since I figured a DLC character wouldn't have as big of an impact in ME3 anyway, and for the fireteam leader I chose Garrus twice since I trusted him the most although I got worried that might increase risk of him dying. Had Mordin escort the crewmates since it seemed fitting as he was a doctor and he could tend to any injuries they had. Chose Samara for the biotic specialist because she suggested herself and I wanted keep Miranda on my squad. Miranda and Legion came with me throughout the whole mission, wanted to make the most of Legion since he joined so late and Miranda felt more important to the plot and could have unique dialogue. My Shepard was a soldier so I wanted a tech and biotic on my squad for the final battle for balance.
It's either 100% or don't bother for me with that series.
Hell yeah.
Double hell yeah. I usually end up keeping Tali with me as, according to the stats, she is only behind Mordin as the most likely to die. I don’t remember all the different variation and points used to determine how strong the fire teams are, but I remember Legion (who was my vent specialist) being one of the big ones, so I wanted to keep him as part of the main group. But bringing Miranda is great for the final mission because she has a few lines for The Illusive Man. But it’s good that you didn’t choose Miranda as the biotic as I believe she isn’t a strong enough one and would have gotten someone killed. The best biotics to use are either Samara or Jack I believe.
I've been playing Hitman 3 which I got during the winter Steam sale and have been enjoying it immensely. The maps are big but not overwhelming, there's a ton of different options and pathways in each map, and you're given the freedom to deal with each target in a dozen different ways. I've spent over 50 hours on just the base six maps alone. The fact that they're giving away most of the DLC and all the maps from the previous two games for free to all players means I'll probably be playing this game for a while.
Finished Cyberpunk 2077 after about 80 or so hours. Played as the male V, romanced Panam, and got the ending of asking her for help and going with the Aldecaldos.
Overall, I thought it was a really good game. I loved exploring and driving through the various parts of Night City. The gameplay, while not groundbreaking, was fun for the most part. Side content was a bit repetitive, but I can’t say I didn’t have fun.
I will say that I wasn’t as into the story and characters as I thought I would be, or at least not to the same extent that had people saying it was some of the best they’ve ever seen. Though granted I tend to do all of the side content I can before going to do the main story, so having that much time between the story missions probably didn’t help with my enjoyment, would probably need a second run through to truly appreciate it. Characters were fine. Silverhand was fantastic, Judy or River were probably my favorite (Judy had the stronger writing, but River had the better character mission/story).
The game still has a lot of glitches and bugs, but compared to some of the stuff I saw from launch, it is definitely a lot better and more polished. However, the game did crash a few times (thankfully it saves pretty frequently) and there were times where the bugs were pretty funny. I feel as though the skill tree and upgrading system could have been better and more rewarding, because it can be a bit grindy at times to try and level up and get the skills you need, especially with how much side content there is.
Overall, a good game, I’d say a solid 7/10.
Hell yeeeeeessss, freakin love those games.
Been playing their new Freelancer game mode since this past weekend and I've been having loads of fun. Not really recommended to get into it until you learn most of the maps, but it is a fun, random, endless Roguelike experience that's really challenging me (and brutally killing me).
But you also get a customizable Safehouse to fool around a bit with which I find very fun.
I tried Freelancer mode once and immediately failed lmao. I'll make my way through all the campaigns first before I make another attempt, which is gonna take a while since I'm trying to do every assassination challenge for all the missions as well.
Good luck! I recently went back and completed all the Assassination (and Discovery and Feats) challenges I'd missed or slacked on since Hitman 3's release -- mostly since I'd already done them in 1 & 2, but they never shared progression so... -- anyway it was still a time-consuming and frankly tedious affair with how specific some of them are, but probably best to not cram them all in 2 weeks' play sessions. XD
Best rule of thumb is to at least get Mastery 20 and finish all the Mission Stories, they provide the most interesting kills and lore on your Targets (though there's usually quite a few other secret methods, not easily given to you)
The maps, puzzle-solving-stealth, kill opportunities, are really fun and well-made though, so I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! This World of Assassination update is finally the BEST decision they've made, granting everyone all the missions from the trilogy, so you can experience most of all the content made so far!
In 'Hitman 2', i think you'll find a certain actor a cool addition
'Tis Mr. John Hopkins, in a very menacing low English accent. (You also hear A LOT of Gavin Hammon as some of the American guard NPCs in early maps) Oh I love this game series so much
Yep I've been mastering them and going through all the missions stories and hidden challenges! Whether it be figuring them out myself or looking at guides.
Unfortunately it still does lock you out of a handful of missions, including the other two sniper maps, unless you get the deluxe version which I didn't. I'll probably get it once I've squeezed enough content out of it.
I also have to say that I despise that I have to be online to properly play the game. That's fuckin' dumb.
Also a lot of Yuri Lowenthal!
I finished Mass Effect 3, loved it and it's one of the only games aside from Red Dead Redemption 2 that's affected me this much emotionally.
The ending I had known for years was controversial, but I'm uh... not sure how I feel about it.
You've actually got the "better" version of the ending, with all the extended cut and added content BioWare went in and added after the fact. What I heard, and some of this may or may not even be true, was that at Casey Hudson (the game director) and Mac Walters (lead writer) had to hammer out and change the ending at almost the last minute, to the point where it was practically unfinished when it came out. It was essentially pick a choice, Normandy crashes, and that was it. All of the more memorable stuff about it was all added in after the game's release.
Even before that, what the "original" ending was going to be and what they were going to do was and still is unknown. There's been hints and pieces of different concepts and ideas, the most prevalent is the dark energy. It would have tied into what Tali was exploring on Haestrom with the planet's sun decaying, that the Reapers were a corrective force against it. But even that, according to the game's original head writer, was never really fleshed out before he left BioWare. Another had Shepard somehow be an alien, again, it was never really fleshed out. One was luring the Reapers through the mass relays and then detonating all of them, thus severing the galaxy from each other and setting up future sequels. In some way, shape, or form, you can definitely see some of these ideas work there way into the ending they released, but as to what the original ending would have been, it really didn't seem like BioWare knew, and the one they were leaning towards got scrapped for some reason and they went with what we got.
I love A Plague Tale Innocence and Requiem so much that I decided to buy a book about the history of this IP. I am not the type that buys merch stuff, even from video games that I love. I'm not even a book reader. But this one and Bloodborne are huge exceptions.
I love how much you've latched onto this IP, it's kinda wholesome lmao