Decided on a whim to play Red Dead Redemption on my PS3 I bought... who knows when. But, I don't like it.
Controls are awkward and sluggish (mash X to run?), missions feel slow and very shooty-gallery. It's a very slow burn. It feels authentic to a western setting, but I guess it's not what I'm looking for right now.
So I think I'll jump on over to Horizon Zero Dawn. Something I also bought... some time ago.
Hopefully it's got the same kind of frontier-civilisation-vibes I'm looking for in an open-world, but with better controls and feeling? Yeah.
Finished Little Nightmares 2 and all I gotta say is
Fuuuuuuuuuuuck....
This is a great series that I think plays its horror very subtle-like, and more of a slow burn, which is thankfully something I can handle more than other horror tropes.
This second entry really raises the scope of the world, puzzles, and freaky uncanny monsters to hide from. It definitely feels like Tarsier Studios have refined their art style, engine, and gameplay, even if the gameplay hasn't had a huge leap in innovation.
The platforming and puzzling is fun. The chases feel more tense and nail-biting than ever, and the length of this game is very satisfying. A bit longer than the last one, with a few impressive scripted sequences, but doesn't overstay its welcome.
This game was soo much better than its predecessor. I think it improved upon the first game in almost every way. I loved playing as Mono more than Six, the story just has more personality, the levels are paced outstandingly and soundtrack is more memorable.
This instantly became one of my favorite horror games ever made and I am very upset that Tasier Studios said they were done with Little Nightmares IP. The only way for this franchise to be continued is to have a different studio take over.
Finished Little Nightmares 2 and all I gotta say is
Fuuuuuuuuuuuck....
This is a great series that I think plays its horror very subtl… moree-like, and more of a slow burn, which is thankfully something I can handle more than other horror tropes.
This second entry really raises the scope of the world, puzzles, and freaky uncanny monsters to hide from. It definitely feels like Tarsier Studios have refined their art style, engine, and gameplay, even if the gameplay hasn't had a huge leap in innovation.
The platforming and puzzling is fun. The chases feel more tense and nail-biting than ever, and the length of this game is very satisfying. A bit longer than the last one, with a few impressive scripted sequences, but doesn't overstay its welcome.
So, I have played Tomb Raider 2013 for the first time since forever and I gotta say, this game is so much better than I remember. I remember criticizing this game and the sequels (Without playing them) because they tried to be more like Uncharted than being themselves, me being an Uncharted fanboy and all.
And honestly, I take back all the shit I have said about it in the past. While it does use some Uncharted mechanics, it does feel like it wants to be its own thing. It doesn't have the best storyline ever (It's full of cliches) but the gameplay is pretty much different. It's more of a metroidvania type of adventure game instead of being linear story-driven one. Unlike Uncharted, you can craft you weapons, have different types of traversal and you can roam around the areas for collectibles.
This just made me realize how stupid I was to compare it to Uncharted instead of just enjoying it for what it was. It's not flawless but damn, is it a good time. I wonder how the sequels are like.
I officially DISLIKE Forbidden Siren. Seriously, this game is just NOT fun at all!! The lack of any sort of hand-holding is just plain fucking selfish, the game doesn't tell a coherent story and you have to do the same missions over and over again in order to progress further. I want to appreciate this game's ideas so much but it's full of bad game design choices. This game is not better than any Resident Evil or Silent Hill games. I even dare to say I'd rather play The Evil Within and The Last of Us Part 2 over it ANY DAY.
About Tomb Raider 2013, yeah, it's a good game and I really dig how it sticks to it's gritty, dark survivalist elements. I haven't played it in a long time, but I do get nostalgic for it after playing Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Man, Rise switches up the location to a frozen mountain/ruins, and I like how there's optional Tomb puzzles to discover, but Rise feels like it's going even further to rip off Uncharted's gameplay and light-hearted style, throwing in an open-ended environment, side missions and more RPG elements, and it didn't click with me. Felt too different.
On your Forbidden Siren though. At least playing TLOU2 gets you smooth, good gameplay
But Siren came out in the PS2 era, so that's probably why most of it feels so clunky.
I officially DISLIKE Forbidden Siren. Seriously, this game is just NOT fun at all!! The lack of any sort of hand-holding is just plain fucki… moreng selfish, the game doesn't tell a coherent story and you have to do the same missions over and over again in order to progress further. I want to appreciate this game's ideas so much but it's full of bad game design choices. This game is not better than any Resident Evil or Silent Hill games. I even dare to say I'd rather play The Evil Within and The Last of Us Part 2 over it ANY DAY.
About Tomb Raider 2013, yeah, it's a good game and I really dig how it sticks to it's gritty, dark survivalist elements. I haven't played it… more in a long time, but I do get nostalgic for it after playing Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Man, Rise switches up the location to a frozen mountain/ruins, and I like how there's optional Tomb puzzles to discover, but Rise feels like it's going even further to rip off Uncharted's gameplay and light-hearted style, throwing in an open-ended environment, side missions and more RPG elements, and it didn't click with me. Felt too different.
On your Forbidden Siren though. At least playing TLOU2 gets you smooth, good gameplay
But Siren came out in the PS2 era, so that's probably why most of it feels so clunky.
About Tomb Raider 2013, yeah, it's a good game and I really dig how it sticks to it's gritty, dark survivalist elements. I haven't played it… more in a long time, but I do get nostalgic for it after playing Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Man, Rise switches up the location to a frozen mountain/ruins, and I like how there's optional Tomb puzzles to discover, but Rise feels like it's going even further to rip off Uncharted's gameplay and light-hearted style, throwing in an open-ended environment, side missions and more RPG elements, and it didn't click with me. Felt too different.
On your Forbidden Siren though. At least playing TLOU2 gets you smooth, good gameplay
But Siren came out in the PS2 era, so that's probably why most of it feels so clunky.
Recently just finished Resident Evil 7 with Next Gen upgrade. I can't speak for everyone else but I have encountered some issues throughout the game. The are some missing audio effects in some parts of the game (For example, the flamethrower made NO sound when I was shooting it), ray tracing seemed to stop working in one area (Namely the main hall of the Baker house) and one object model didn't seem to rendered and load texture.
These are just small issues that should be easy to fix. There is no such thing as another GTA Definitive Edition situation. However, this game needs a patch ASAP. Other than those issues, I am soo fucking happy they got rid of overlengthen loading screens and unloaded textures in close-ups.
I finished Alan Wake Remastered today. I like the IP and it's got a good mystery/supernatural vibe, but
Oooh, oh man this game has not aged well. The story itself is captivating enough, but it is broken up by such repetitive, long, formulaic gameplay segments that make it such a bore to get through.
I was "lucky" enough to follow a 100% guide on the collectibles on this playthrough, just so I could get everything in one fell swoop. So, I was picking up new Manuscript pages every 5 minutes, and that at least broke up the pacing a little bit, so I could read along pages that teased future events or explained past events, or character things off-screen.
(Kinda reminded me of Control with how much lore-pages you'd pick up every few minutes)
But, yikes, the gameplay itself is just so shallow. The combat is extremely simple, the ways to dispatch enemies improves very little over the course of the game (burn away shield, shoot, rinse/repeat), and the amount of times the game finds a new way to force Alan to get lost in the dark woods, every episode, is agonizing.
The sections to get to the main objectives are just so long. Probably to keep some tension & mystery in where you go (hey, it worked when I was 12) -- but honestly once you get stocked up, the game becomes such an action game it's just tedious. But it's not the kind of uber-powerful fun combat like Control uses so effectively.
The story itself is fun with some twists and turns in Alice's disappearance and trouble Alan gets caught up in, but it doesn't really get to the "hook" point until Episode 4 with Barry tagging along. Episode 2 & 3 are a series of ever-changing fetch quests (Go here. Oops, I lied! Go here!), and it's annoying.
If I were to recommend this to someone else in the future, I'd probably find a nice recap of all the important story events, unfortunately.
This game needs a full modern remake. I feel like a lot of its pacing/environment issues are leftover from changing the game so drastically from its Open World design at the last minute.
It’s been some time since I played the original. I played the side-sequel American Nightmare more recently and that improved the gameplay a bit with more weapons (including automatics), somewhat more open areas, more variety in enemy types, and an actual survival arcade mode that was really fun. Story was kinda a miss though.
Alan Wake probably has aged in some ways just cause I haven’t played it in a while, but it’s still one of my favorite games just because of the memories I had with it.
I finished Alan Wake Remastered today. I like the IP and it's got a good mystery/supernatural vibe, but
Oooh, oh man this game has not ag… moreed well. The story itself is captivating enough, but it is broken up by such repetitive, long, formulaic gameplay segments that make it such a bore to get through.
I was "lucky" enough to follow a 100% guide on the collectibles on this playthrough, just so I could get everything in one fell swoop. So, I was picking up new Manuscript pages every 5 minutes, and that at least broke up the pacing a little bit, so I could read along pages that teased future events or explained past events, or character things off-screen.
(Kinda reminded me of Control with how much lore-pages you'd pick up every few minutes)
But, yikes, the gameplay itself is just so shallow. The combat is extremely simple, the ways to dispatch enemies improves very little over the course of the game (burn away shield, shoot, rinse/repea… [view original content]
Yeah, I agree that it's still a pretty iconic game, and I hold a lot of love for it despite its dated-ness.
I think I've only ever played American Nightmare once, but from what I remember, I enjoyed the gameplay in that one a lot more, with greater weapons, enemies, & setting. The use of the Time Loop plot was also neat -- I love those -- plus a bit of the sequences where you have to "rewrite reality" were very memorable and cool. The concept of "nudging reality to create a pre-written situation" was really awesome, kind of like a "reverse butterfly effect"
I do hope the sequel goes a bit further into that metaphysical reality-morphing themes. Given where Control ended, I think that's likely.
Plus, this bonus QR Code in the Remaster you can find makes me super excited. The Return is gonna happen...!!
It’s been some time since I played the original. I played the side-sequel American Nightmare more recently and that improved the gameplay a … morebit with more weapons (including automatics), somewhat more open areas, more variety in enemy types, and an actual survival arcade mode that was really fun. Story was kinda a miss though.
Alan Wake probably has aged in some ways just cause I haven’t played it in a while, but it’s still one of my favorite games just because of the memories I had with it.
Finished Tormented Souls. This is probably the most OK game I have ever played, definitely top 5. This is not a bad game, this is not a great game. This is just a GAME!!!!!!!
I loved the influence of Resident Evil and Silent Hill but 90% of this game is puzzles and most of them are just absurdly hard to solve by myself, thus making the game longer than it should be. The combat is decent but the enemy variety was kind of lacking. The worst part is that someone didn't do a good job with the subtitles.
I just finished the original Resident Evil recently. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. The first time I played it was on PS3 and when I started it, the game FORCED me to use arrow buttons instead of the analog sticks. That made me rage quit really quick. Thankfully, the PS5 port had updated controls and surprisingly, it had a feature to save whenever I want and restart a part very quickly without reloading a file. This made the blind experience much better but I went with the manual saving (Ink Ribbons) so I can have that survival horror sentiment.
Although I would still say, as playing the REmake first: the original was a complete downgrade for me. Not because of the graphics but because of the content I was familiar. The original has no Lisa Trevor, no Crimson Heads, no puzzles like the Deadly Fours Masks and no lore-development. The original obviously makes me appreciate the REmake even more than already did. REmake is the EXACT vision Shinji Mikami wanted to make in 1996.
It's a nice entry in the series, serving as a "greatest hits" with a few new additions, though it has a few issues (either as a general complaint or as a RH veteran)
The game can be divided into 3 sections: The introduction/tutorial to the games, the Tower gautlet, and the final Heaven World trials.
The first third of the game is super easy as a veteran, featuring many games from the DS and Wii editions. The games themselves are also cut-down versions, lasting under a minute each, at least in their first appearance. This makes the first section tedious.
The few GBA entries and New entries do shake things up a bit with it being "new" stuff western audiences haven't seen which is a bit of a saving grace.
To put things into a quick and easy list:
the last 2/3rds of the game are challenging and keep offering surprises
games brought over from the DS and GBA use newly animated graphics
there is a new "rhythm assist" tracker on the bottom screen, telling you how far off you are from the "perfect beat"
A new "Challenge Train" mode is great! A series of 3-5 rhythm games bundled together, with extra challenge/modifiers added to them -- either a Score threshold, a Life system that limits your amount of failure, or a challenging "score as many Perfect beats possible, or the visible size of the game shrinks and you fail". Plus, an added Faster Tempo version may be used.
A Street-Pass bonus rhythm mode. Plus a DS-Download-Play option for Multiplayer! No other copies needed!
controls are a bit new, with some games requiring the D-Pad
Cons:
-- Remixes -- a franchise staple -- don't appear until completing the first third of the game, an odd choice.
-- Remixes are less catchy/memorable. Not sure why.
-- Controls only use the A, B, or D-pad buttons.
-- Very poor use of the 3DS. The only way to navigate the menus is with the D-Pad and Stylus, no either/or option. The Circle Pad's only use is for a side-game. Touch-screen option feels like an after-thought.
-- Menus are complex, and take longer to navigate than it should.
-- There is a Story... it's not great and often gets in the way of the game's flow (how ironic...) interrupting you after every game completed.
- No Endless Games available, a real shame...!
The end of the game is very enjoyable with 3 different remixes of most of the games in this title...
There is no "Every Single Game in this Title Remix!" Which is a big disappointment. The Final Remix doesn't do that, but still evoked feelings of fun though.
So I have finally finished Mass Effect: Andromeda. Final say on the matter...it's really not as bad as people say it is. Now don't get me wrong, there are some glaring issues and several minor ones that sort of compile up, but it's nowhere near terrible. Hell, I'd even say it's good, the problem is that it just doesn't compare to the original ME trilogy and I think that causes a lot of people's disdain towards it.
The Good:
While it has some drawbacks, the Frostbite Engine does create some absolutely beautiful landscapes and environments. Outside of the character models, the game is beautiful to look at. Nothing against Unreal (the previous engine of the ME series), but this is definitely the best ME to look at. That being said, I am in no way complaining with the rumors of returning to Unreal for the next game, as it overall lends itself better to the type of game BioWare wants to make.
Gameplay, easily the best in the series. Feels like it lends itself more to ME1 than the other entries. More skills and RPG like elements compared to ME2 and ME3. Combat is a lot more diverse and engaging, I honestly really hope they take this element and add it to the upcoming game.
Music and soundtrack, which, granted, has always been a good highlight of the series.
There are some really good characters that are fine additions to the ME roster. Cora's arc and loyalty missions was probably my favorite as she was one of the characters that does go through some strong growth. Jaal and Peebee also had some great standout moments. And easily my favorite was Vetra. I'm starting to notice a pattern of romancing ME women who are shy, awkward, adorable, dextro-amino based, and are associated with the color purple. The romance doesn't hit the same as Tali's, but it is sweet.
A slightly improved dialogue tree/morality system. I liked the paragon/renegade system of the trilogy, but it wasn't one of the best aspects of it. Renegade was always too inconsistent between "I'll do whatever it takes to complete the mission, screw anyone who gets in my way" to "How much of a fucking asshole can I be to fuck things up." This game doesn't perfect what it sets out to do, but I did like it a bit more. Felt like I had more control of shaping Ryder's personality and my conversations with characters. It was more varied than just being a goody two shoes, or an insane monster. Overall, it was different, but I still liked it.
The Bad:
It definitely needed more time in the oven. We all know BioWare's issues over the last several years. Crunch and rushed game development, project and development leads leaving and being replaced, lack of direction, starting from scratch. While Anthem got the worst of it, Andromeda was where it really started to show. There are ideas and concepts that just don't go anywhere or are underdeveloped. It just didn't have that same magic as the other games did. Mac Walters, game director and writer for the original ME trilogy, comes in after the first director left and tries to salvage what he can it looks like, but yeah, the game wasn't really set up to succeed.
Tone. Maybe this is more of a "meh" thing, because some of the humor in this game is actually pretty good. The game went for a lighter and less serious tone. In some areas, it worked and got a laugh. However, other times, it felt weird. It felt like an MCU movie, which could be fine if that's what the series was based on, but its not. Jokes and quipping and awkward parts of the game, it felt like it lacked seriousness and purpose. That works for something like the Citadel DLC from ME3, but not for an entire game. That being said, it is ironic that I thought the game was funnier than Borderlands, a sci-fi video game that prides itself on its humor.
The character models are just...yeah, we all know the issue with it. Moving on.
While improved, the game still has a lot of bugs and technical issues. Falling through the map, game crashes, not being able to access my weapons...in the middle of combat. Not great.
While there are some good characters, there are also just some really bad ones. Liam is easily the worst of the squadmates, Drax was underdeveloped, all of the Nexus leads were just awful (ehhh, Kandros was okay I guess), and Gil...dude wouldn't shut the fuck up about the same topic. He was so one dimensional, so grating, so irritating I just gave up with him. Even for some of the characters I liked, they had some annoying aspects to them. Cora, while having a good arc, always had one topic of discussion. Vetra, while my favorite character, had the most basic and simplistic loyalty mission and doesn't really have an arc as far as I can tell.
The story is lackluster. A strong beginning, an exciting end, but a very weak middle. The villain is fine I guess, but it lacks the same gripping investment of even the first game in the trilogy.
Too many side missions. Odd complaint, but the game seriously went with quantity over quality with this. So many missions just felt the same, and every time you finished one, guess what, 3 more pop up. And often times, it would just be "Go here, get this, (sometimes) kill these enemies, bring it back." Which wouldn't have been too bad if it wasn't for the fact of constantly planet hopping and dealing with the loading screens. Some of these missions, I spent more time waiting for loading screens or cut scenes to finish, then actually playing the game. It gets really irksome and frustrating.
Overall, I'd still say I enjoyed it, it just lacks the same magic and feel of the OT. As a standalone game, while nowhere near the best thing I've ever played, I still had fun. Overall, a 6.5/10, maybe a 7 if I'm feeling generous.
Finished Ape Out on my Switch recently. Snagged it for ~3$ in a sale. That's a steal IMO. I'd have gladly paid 10-15$ for this.
The concept is very simple, but the game is quite difficult.
You are an angry gorilla held in captivity. You need to get out.
There's a heavy Jazz soundtrack, entirely improvised by what you encounter, do, get hit with, etc. It also changes instruments through each "album"/world of the game.
A cool 1950's movie poster art style.
Simple controls, simple gameplay. You get hit 3 times, dead. Enemies shoot you quickly. You can throw one into a wall, or grab and use as a shield. It gets very bloody, as when enemies die they explode into an artistic splatter of blood and limbs.
Increasingly varied enemy types that are either tougher to defeat, offer more ways to kill you, or require a different method of handling them.
The game prides itself on its musical style, with each biome being represented by an album and each 4 levels being one side of a vinyl record.
The procedural generation works great, in that every level is usually the same, entry/exit/room wise, but the placement of doors, windows, and walls to them get mixed up.
Dying can be cool, to see how far you were from the exit & what crazy path you took.
Each "album" has a Harder mode, which over-stuffs the levels with enemies, making things really hectic
Every level title comes with Dynamic Typography, usually in a fun animation complementary of what to expect or what the level's theme is about.
Get this game. It's great. It'll last you a good few hours.
Still haven't finished the extra-long Epilogue. Still haven't finished any of the Harder albums.
Finished watching a playthrough of Prey (2017, Arkane). Whoaaa what a game...
It nails some great sci-fi themes of mystery, fear, and fascination of deadly alien species. The world-building is absolutely massive in the amount of readable files, audio logs, the general design and creation of the space station itself. The amount of side-missions at hand is also very impressive, constantly calling you to various areas of the ship to find specific objects or help specific people. The level design itself is also amazing, with multiple routes and methods to explore and navigate the ship.
A lot of the game has very, very spooky vibes though so I'm glad I chose to watch someone else play through it for me.
The ending -before the credits- is weirdly abrupt. Like, you get a 20-second cutscene and that's it. But the ending -after the credits- is where the game shows off it's final trump card. The whole deck is laid on the table and it's wild.
It is a bit disappointing in that the events of the game are a "what-if" simulation scenario playing out in your-own-alien-mind's head, but the implications of it in reference to the twist of -you being a Typhon cross-species- is super duper interesting.
I watched Markiplier's playthrough and even he couldn't get through all the quests in the game. He was very thorough in reading as much as possible and exploring as much as he could manage, since he also had an intense fascination with the world (and space) itself.
He's got a 2.5 hour playthrough of the Roguelike DLC which I might check out sometime later. Roguelikes are cool and I'd love to see how Arkane tackles it.
It kind of makes me want to revisit Dishonored, for like the 4th attempt, even though every prior attempt has left me leaving it, bored. Maybe I just have to focus on the side-content because clearly Arkane loves that stuff.
(Maybe it's just that I'm bad at 1st Person stealth, or not using the right powers, or playing a total pacifist is slow and extremely tedious... I'll try one more time with Dishonored, but only because I've gotten in an Arkane mood.)
I will definitely be looking up a bunch of details on Prey's development though because it's a fantastic experience they've crafted here.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon.
Started playing it for the first time and while I do like the amount of characters in it, I find the game difficult and also lacking a single fight (where you get to choose which character to fight for 1 player).
Edit: Forgot to mention that I miss when you can unlock characters in the game without having to spend real money on microtransactions.
I finished Demon's Souls Remake. Very beautiful game, probably the best PS5 exclusive I have played so far. This game gave a hard time surprisingly, I think it was a lot harder than the entire Dark Souls trilogy. I died to boss routes more than the bosses themselves and speaking of bosses, some were hit or miss. Most of them were very easy to deal with, there is only boss that gave me a huge headache which is the Flamelurker. There is also that pissed me the hell off and that is the Dragon God. That literally reminded me of Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls 1 and that is definitely not a good thing. It was more of a stupid puzzle rather. I have missed a lot of side quests I believe but I will save them for NG+.
Overall, I am soo glad I finally got to play the one that started the entire Souls franchise. Now that I have finished this game, I should get back to Elden Ring and finish that one as well.
I’ve been playing Elden Ring on and off, as I sometimes stop playing the game for a few weeks because the difficulty can be bothersome. However Elden Ring is easier then the other souls like games. I like the fact that George R.R. Martin also had some of his ideas thrown into the game which you can see in the armors your character and the enemies wear. I also love the exploration in these games and I do like getting invaded because it really makes you feel a bit of anxious as to how powerful your opponent is, what class did he pick, what magic will he use etc… it’s a really fun game. I just feel like the open world was a bit of a let down. But I feel like I am still pretty earlier in the game since I am up to Stormveil Castle.
I finished Demon's Souls Remake. Very beautiful game, probably the best PS5 exclusive I have played so far. This game gave a hard time surpr… moreisingly, I think it was a lot harder than the entire Dark Souls trilogy. I died to boss routes more than the bosses themselves and speaking of bosses, some were hit or miss. Most of them were very easy to deal with, there is only boss that gave me a huge headache which is the Flamelurker. There is also that pissed me the hell off and that is the Dragon God. That literally reminded me of Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls 1 and that is definitely not a good thing. It was more of a stupid puzzle rather. I have missed a lot of side quests I believe but I will save them for NG+.
Overall, I am soo glad I finally got to play the one that started the entire Souls franchise. Now that I have finished this game, I should get back to Elden Ring and finish that one as well.
Finished the Octo Expansion for Splatoon 2! Boy, am I glad that's done with!
It's a great expansion that actually gives you challenging levels, shorter experiences, and more varied objectives (instead of just "go from Point A to Point B")
Plus an open-ended level selection
But there are quite a few levels that are just HELL. Very tricky platforming, specific "avoid X or insta-death", or tough combat challenges, it can be frustrating.
Thankfully there's a skip option for each level (including the final level, a series of interconnected stages) you just have to spend enough time on each level to be able to buy your way through it.
But I rarely used it, unless I got into a serious roadblock where every level I had on-hand was super tough. It made me feel guilty not completing it myself.
So yeah. Good experience. I like some of the challenge, though some can go too far -- even in the cutscene-heavy epic final levels, I died a lot and that was unfortunate.
But that's done! Not sure if Splatoon 2 is of much use to me anymore, wasn't ever really too good at the multiplayer.
And maybe, I'll pick up S3 on a sale in the future -- I never owned a Splat game while it's live-service content was still underway. Plus the reported improvements on Main Campaign, 24/7 Salmon Run, Punk-Rock soundtrack, and other additions sound good.
I am officially done with my marathon of playing the Silent Hill games made by Team Silent for the first time. I recently finished Silent Hill 4 and here are my thoughts:
This game is totally different compared to the first three games as they said, considering that this was never originally meant to be a Silent Hill entry. But it does do something very unique.
As far as I know, this is the only SH game where the town itself makes no physical appearance (It has more of a background role) and although the atmosphere isn't as strong as the previous games, it still made me feel like I was playing a Silent Hill game. Unlike the previous entries, you live in an apartment which is used as sort of a hub area that serves the purpose of lore-building, item management and saving progress. This game has 5 different levels in total and you go through each of them TWICE in the entire game. Also, this game contains only TWO bosses and you don't encounter one until near the end of the game.
As far as the positives go, I love how this game creates its own identity while keeping the same spirit of the previous games. The story is not straightforward, making it more interesting to learn through the lore. The puzzles are very well balanced and there are none that are gamebreaking, except for one which I can only blame myself for not realizing. I love the enemy designs and the first half is what I would call perfect, almost.
As for the negatives, I do NOT like how they used stock sound effects for enemies, especially dogs. When one charges at you, they roar like a lion and when you stomp one, it makes a cheetah scream. I understand this game had development issues but couldn't find a dog to record his barking? The second half of the game is kind of sloppy because you pretty much go through the same levels again, only with different puzzles and you have a companion that you have to make sure they follow you in the next rooms. That was a mediocre change of pace.
Overall, Silent Hill 4 was very interesting. Not as amazing as the first games but it's definitely passable and I don't think it deserves the hate.
EDIT: Oops. After doing some research, it is said that Silent Hill 4 was actually always meant to be a Silent Hill entry rather a standalone game. My bad.
Gonna be a very long write-up here, but I finally beat the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy!
Took me quite a while. Let me tell you, I am bad at this game. Also the game is way too particular with its game design.
The game consists of Investigation segments and Trial segments, one where you have to find clues and the other where you find contradictions in people's testimonies.
The Investigation bits are annoying in that you have to interact with things in a specific order for certain people to show up, or tell people about a specific person/thing, for them to open up about a new topic. It's very particular and there's no info on what to do next.
The Trial bits are where you have to press statements to reveal more info, and find contradictions with evidence in your case, or previous testimony. It is also very particular in how and when certain pieces of info are supposed to be revealed and how. Most of it I think was worded too vaguely, or sometimes I'd think too many steps ahead and present the wrong thing -- leading to many failures.
I've mentioned it before, but thankfully I found a Hints website that slowly reveals hints bit by bit to each step in the case. Helped guide me where I needed, reveal answers I was truly stumped by (and had no chances left on), and got me through it!
The game is full of flamboyant characters with puns for names. Great music and art as well. My only overall criticism is that the gameplay format doesn't evolve that much over the 3 games. It's also very visual-novel-y, lots of reading, and it made it hard to have to think oh I'll need to set aside an hour to get through this segment, or, This case might take 4-5 hours overall, I'd better not start it, cause I know It'll take me a while to get through it, I'll forget the details of the case.
The final case of PW 3 is a great one that ties up the main mystery/antagonist of 3, and a few of the lingerins mysteries of the trilogy. Very good.
Also I LOVE that the prosecutor in 3 is named after one of my favourite plays. Waiting for Godot. Such a suave guy, too.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I get the appeal of the series. I still prefer Ghost Trick from Shu Takumi's works...
Will probably revisit Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright soon, now that I'm well acquainted with PW and his common tropes/themes of his games.
Also I love that Alternate Judge is extremely Canadian, for no reason whatsoever.
The localization team had a lot of fun with this game, I'm sure.
So far into A Plague Tale Requiem, this game doesn't have a great performance but if we cut that, the game is an absolute blast. This is the EXACT opposite of what The Last of Us Part 2 had done. No annoying characters, expanded character relationships and improved gameplay.
Just finished the game. This game lived up to the hype and it's my second favorite game of 2022. It is just as amazing as the first game if not better. They improved a lot of the weak parts of the first game. Although I will say: the performance of the game is very weak. They need to fix the frame pacing and lock it at 60FPS as soon as possible.
I played Cyberpunk 2077 and honestly I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story is very well written, the characters have a lot of depth, the voice acting is great, and the world of Night City feels fully realised and lived in, which can be an issue when it comes to open world games. Johnny Silverhand is a fantastically written character. He went from someone I absolutely could not stand at the start to someone I would almost consider a friend by the end. Keanu Reaves's performance of the character is... admittedly weak at times much like his acting, but there are moments where he really gets to shine and actually pull of some range.
Relatively small note but I also have to give praise to the wide range of NPC's in the game. Often times in games like this you'll regularly see the same random NPC's over and over again but there are so many different variations that it wasn't often I'd find the same NPC twice, and even then there'd be some sort of different whether it be the style of clothes, skin colour or their cyberware.
The gameplay is fine. Nothing mind blowing but perfectly serviceable, though enemies could be really bullet spongey at times. The driving in the game is terrible, it's like controlling a slab of butter on a wet surface. Also the minimap is fucking god awful. At the very least, these issues can be fixed with the addition of some quality of life mods.
What can't be fixed with mods unfortunately is the fucking laundry list of bugs and glitches I encountered throughout my time with the game. It's been two years since the game launched and it's still at an abysmal state with many of the bugs ranging from minor but annoying, to completely game breaking. I don't know if I'm just really unlucky because part of the reason I even got the game was because I'd seen a lot of people saying most of the issues had been ironed out, or if these people were completely full of shit.
I would recommend getting the game but at a high sale, at least 50% off.
Also for fun, off the top of my head here's some of the bugs I encountered. Spoiler tagged because it's a fairly long list.
Severe performance issues at the start of the game. I don't know how I fixed it.
NPC's/vehicles spawning in front of me.
NPC's/vehicles despawning in front of me.
Cars sinking into the ground.
Audio disappearing.
Voice lines not playing.
Lip syncing not working.
Entire sections of the map not loading in.
Braindance not loading in.
Clothes disappearing from V's body.
Character's T-posing during cutscenes.
NPC's T-posing.
Bodies being shot into the stratosphere.
NPC's stuck inside walls.
NPC's not loading in properly, making them look like Half Life 1 character models.
Items looping loud banging noises for infinite when V collides into them.
Guns stuck in the air.
Guns stuck in walls.
Music not playing.
Vehicles randomly swerving for no reason.
Enemy NPC's spotting bodies from behind walls.
UI notifications getting stuck on screen which can only be fixed by restarting the game.
FOV changing which can only be fixed by restarting the game.
I ended up with what most people would call the worst ending which was selling V's soul to Arasaka. I could've chosen getting help from the Aldecaldos but as Johnny said, he didn't want to risk their lives. Also are you gonna try for the secret ending?
I played Cyberpunk 2077 and honestly I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story is very well written, the characters have a lot of depth, the voice… more acting is great, and the world of Night City feels fully realised and lived in, which can be an issue when it comes to open world games. Johnny Silverhand is a fantastically written character. He went from someone I absolutely could not stand at the start to someone I would almost consider a friend by the end. Keanu Reaves's performance of the character is... admittedly weak at times much like his acting, but there are moments where he really gets to shine and actually pull of some range.
Relatively small note but I also have to give praise to the wide range of NPC's in the game. Often times in games like this you'll regularly see the same random NPC's over and over again but there are so many different variations that it wasn't often I'd find the same NPC twice, and even then there'd be some sort of … [view original content]
I attacked Arasaka alongside Rogue and the game ended with V in space doing a job for a mysterious client. I'll probably try and get a couple of the endings, the Aldecaldos and the secret ending (if I've hit the requirement), but I'll take a be taking a break from it for now.
I finished A Plague Tales: Requiem about a week ago and have been letting it stew in my brain in order to forgo any potential "fresh off the game" bias.
Story and character-wise, it's much darker, more emotionally exhausting, and swerves even harder into the fantasy elements introduced in the first game. The voice work is nothing short of phenomenal. Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannan (Amicia and Hugo) both do a terrific job when it comes to the more emotional scenes in the game. There are a number of really raw performances especially when things get to much for the characters, and they can't help but just break down.
I do have to point out that for whatever reason, they've completely dropped the french accents for all the characters, despite Amicia and Hugo retaining their previous voice actors and the game still taking place in France. Instead everyone has an English accent. It's not a big deal, but there were a couple moments that took me out of the game for a bit, in particular there's a point where a character starts complaining about the British, whilst having a British accent.
In terms of gameplay, there's mostly improvements such as more tools being made available to Amicia to help her along her way and some tweaks to make things smoother and in general just more enjoyable to play. However, there's a de-emphasis on stealth which I was disappointed with. You can totally still sneak your way through levels, however at times it is either significantly harder or near impossible, forcing you to attack enemies head on. As someone who avoided killing as much as possible, it was wildly difficult.
Levels are also bigger in comparison to the first game, with more routes and hidden areas and loot for you to discover, though there definitely still are those tight claustrophobic areas filled with rats for you to wade through. To my surprise, there's even a massive open area filled with explorable locations, character interactions, loot and puzzles for you to leisurely discover that took me a good hour to go completely go through.
It's probably my Game of the Year. Requiem spins a wonderfully violent tale of hope and inevitibility, giving me some of the best voice acting performances I've heard from a game in a long while, for the most part improving on the gameplay elements from its predecessor, and finishes off with a horrifying but touching ending I won't soon forget. I love this game, and I love Amicia and Hugo. Also there's an after credits scene I found so insanely audacious that I couldn't help but laugh.
I never want to see another entry in this series ever again lmao.
For others, they either choose either The Walking Dead or The Last of Us as the most depressing story-driven game experience.
But for me, A Plague Tale Requiem surpassed both of them for me. I relate to Amicia and Hugo in so many ways considering that I am a little brother of 4 sisters. The gameplay was hugely improved and despite the bigger length, the pacing was not boring at all. This is the very first game sequel that managed to not only live up to the hype but also, surpass the original game in almost every way. It felt like I was playing Uncharted 2 all over again. If it weren't for the lack of performance mode, I would have had Requiem as my GOTY but Elden Ring still takes the cake. I DM'd Asobo Studios on Twitter, told them how much I loved the game and asked them if they are working on fixing the performance of the game. They didn't answer but they did give a heart emoji to my comments.
I do have to point out that for whatever reason, they've completely dropped the french accents for all the characters, despite Amicia and Hugo retaining their previous voice actors and the game still taking place in France. Instead everyone has an English accent. It's not a big deal, but there were a couple moments that took me out of the game for a bit, in particular there's a point where a character starts complaining about the British, whilst having a British accent.
TBF, I dunno if it's just me but the voice acting in the first game wasn't perfect either. I can't tell if it's just the accent that I didn't like or some voice lines just felt rough.
Also there's an after credits scene I found so insanely audacious that I couldn't help but laugh. I never want to see another entry in this series ever again lmao.
I agree, this should not be a franchise at all. Also why fucking close the story in such a good note and then bait us with a sequel just after the credits? Very unoriginal and stupid. Should have saved it for a twitter announcement or something.
I finished A Plague Tales: Requiem about a week ago and have been letting it stew in my brain in order to forgo any potential "fresh off the… more game" bias.
Story and character-wise, it's much darker, more emotionally exhausting, and swerves even harder into the fantasy elements introduced in the first game. The voice work is nothing short of phenomenal. Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannan (Amicia and Hugo) both do a terrific job when it comes to the more emotional scenes in the game. There are a number of really raw performances especially when things get to much for the characters, and they can't help but just break down.
I do have to point out that for whatever reason, they've completely dropped the french accents for all the characters, despite Amicia and Hugo retaining their previous voice actors and the game still taking place in France. Instead everyone has an English accent. It's not a big deal, but there were a couple moments that … [view original content]
TBF, I dunno if it's just me but the voice acting in the first game wasn't perfect either. I can't tell if it's just the accent that I didn't like or some voice lines just felt rough.
I still think the voice acting in the first game is great, but it's clear now that being forced to do a French accent held them back a bit.
I agree, this should not be a franchise at all. Also why fucking close the story in such a good note and then bait us with a sequel just after the credits? Very unoriginal and stupid. Should have saved it for a twitter announcement or something.
I personally think it's less a sequel bait and more of a show of the cycle continuing, especially since it was set during the modern day. What I found hilarious was that it implied that Covid is actually caused by the Macula.
For others, they either choose either The Walking Dead or The Last of Us as the most depressing story-driven game experience.
But for me,… more A Plague Tale Requiem surpassed both of them for me. I relate to Amicia and Hugo in so many ways considering that I am a little brother of 4 sisters. The gameplay was hugely improved and despite the bigger length, the pacing was not boring at all. This is the very first game sequel that managed to not only live up to the hype but also, surpass the original game in almost every way. It felt like I was playing Uncharted 2 all over again. If it weren't for the lack of performance mode, I would have had Requiem as my GOTY but Elden Ring still takes the cake. I DM'd Asobo Studios on Twitter, told them how much I loved the game and asked them if they are working on fixing the performance of the game. They didn't answer but they did give a heart emoji to my comments.
I do have to point out that for whatev… [view original content]
Comments
Decided on a whim to play Red Dead Redemption on my PS3 I bought... who knows when. But, I don't like it.
Controls are awkward and sluggish (mash X to run?), missions feel slow and very shooty-gallery. It's a very slow burn. It feels authentic to a western setting, but I guess it's not what I'm looking for right now.
So I think I'll jump on over to Horizon Zero Dawn. Something I also bought... some time ago.
Hopefully it's got the same kind of frontier-civilisation-vibes I'm looking for in an open-world, but with better controls and feeling? Yeah.
Finished Little Nightmares 2 and all I gotta say is
Fuuuuuuuuuuuck....
This is a great series that I think plays its horror very subtle-like, and more of a slow burn, which is thankfully something I can handle more than other horror tropes.
This second entry really raises the scope of the world, puzzles, and freaky uncanny monsters to hide from. It definitely feels like Tarsier Studios have refined their art style, engine, and gameplay, even if the gameplay hasn't had a huge leap in innovation.
The platforming and puzzling is fun. The chases feel more tense and nail-biting than ever, and the length of this game is very satisfying. A bit longer than the last one, with a few impressive scripted sequences, but doesn't overstay its welcome.
This game was soo much better than its predecessor. I think it improved upon the first game in almost every way. I loved playing as Mono more than Six, the story just has more personality, the levels are paced outstandingly and soundtrack is more memorable.
This instantly became one of my favorite horror games ever made and I am very upset that Tasier Studios said they were done with Little Nightmares IP. The only way for this franchise to be continued is to have a different studio take over.
So, I have played Tomb Raider 2013 for the first time since forever and I gotta say, this game is so much better than I remember. I remember criticizing this game and the sequels (Without playing them) because they tried to be more like Uncharted than being themselves, me being an Uncharted fanboy and all.
And honestly, I take back all the shit I have said about it in the past. While it does use some Uncharted mechanics, it does feel like it wants to be its own thing. It doesn't have the best storyline ever (It's full of cliches) but the gameplay is pretty much different. It's more of a metroidvania type of adventure game instead of being linear story-driven one. Unlike Uncharted, you can craft you weapons, have different types of traversal and you can roam around the areas for collectibles.
This just made me realize how stupid I was to compare it to Uncharted instead of just enjoying it for what it was. It's not flawless but damn, is it a good time. I wonder how the sequels are like.
I officially DISLIKE Forbidden Siren. Seriously, this game is just NOT fun at all!! The lack of any sort of hand-holding is just plain fucking selfish, the game doesn't tell a coherent story and you have to do the same missions over and over again in order to progress further. I want to appreciate this game's ideas so much but it's full of bad game design choices. This game is not better than any Resident Evil or Silent Hill games. I even dare to say I'd rather play The Evil Within and The Last of Us Part 2 over it ANY DAY.
About Tomb Raider 2013, yeah, it's a good game and I really dig how it sticks to it's gritty, dark survivalist elements. I haven't played it in a long time, but I do get nostalgic for it after playing Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Man, Rise switches up the location to a frozen mountain/ruins, and I like how there's optional Tomb puzzles to discover, but Rise feels like it's going even further to rip off Uncharted's gameplay and light-hearted style, throwing in an open-ended environment, side missions and more RPG elements, and it didn't click with me. Felt too different.
On your Forbidden Siren though. At least playing TLOU2 gets you smooth, good gameplay
But Siren came out in the PS2 era, so that's probably why most of it feels so clunky.
There are much better games made in that generation. Namely the first Silent Hill trilogy and the original Resident Evil 2 and 3.
You don’t dare diss the ps2 era my homie
lol but yeah kingdom hearts 2 is one of the smoothest games I’ve played and that first came out on ps2. That’s just the first that came to mind too.
Recently just finished Resident Evil 7 with Next Gen upgrade. I can't speak for everyone else but I have encountered some issues throughout the game. The are some missing audio effects in some parts of the game (For example, the flamethrower made NO sound when I was shooting it), ray tracing seemed to stop working in one area (Namely the main hall of the Baker house) and one object model didn't seem to rendered and load texture.
These are just small issues that should be easy to fix. There is no such thing as another GTA Definitive Edition situation. However, this game needs a patch ASAP. Other than those issues, I am soo fucking happy they got rid of overlengthen loading screens and unloaded textures in close-ups.
I finished Alan Wake Remastered today. I like the IP and it's got a good mystery/supernatural vibe, but
Oooh, oh man this game has not aged well. The story itself is captivating enough, but it is broken up by such repetitive, long, formulaic gameplay segments that make it such a bore to get through.
I was "lucky" enough to follow a 100% guide on the collectibles on this playthrough, just so I could get everything in one fell swoop. So, I was picking up new Manuscript pages every 5 minutes, and that at least broke up the pacing a little bit, so I could read along pages that teased future events or explained past events, or character things off-screen.
(Kinda reminded me of Control with how much lore-pages you'd pick up every few minutes)
But, yikes, the gameplay itself is just so shallow. The combat is extremely simple, the ways to dispatch enemies improves very little over the course of the game (burn away shield, shoot, rinse/repeat), and the amount of times the game finds a new way to force Alan to get lost in the dark woods, every episode, is agonizing.
The sections to get to the main objectives are just so long. Probably to keep some tension & mystery in where you go (hey, it worked when I was 12) -- but honestly once you get stocked up, the game becomes such an action game it's just tedious. But it's not the kind of uber-powerful fun combat like Control uses so effectively.
The story itself is fun with some twists and turns in Alice's disappearance and trouble Alan gets caught up in, but it doesn't really get to the "hook" point until Episode 4 with Barry tagging along. Episode 2 & 3 are a series of ever-changing fetch quests (Go here. Oops, I lied! Go here!), and it's annoying.
If I were to recommend this to someone else in the future, I'd probably find a nice recap of all the important story events, unfortunately.
This game needs a full modern remake. I feel like a lot of its pacing/environment issues are leftover from changing the game so drastically from its Open World design at the last minute.
It’s been some time since I played the original. I played the side-sequel American Nightmare more recently and that improved the gameplay a bit with more weapons (including automatics), somewhat more open areas, more variety in enemy types, and an actual survival arcade mode that was really fun. Story was kinda a miss though.
Alan Wake probably has aged in some ways just cause I haven’t played it in a while, but it’s still one of my favorite games just because of the memories I had with it.
Sooo, I started playing Tormented Souls and I am already in love with it, being a fan of Resident Evil and Silent Hill and all.
Yeah, I agree that it's still a pretty iconic game, and I hold a lot of love for it despite its dated-ness.
I think I've only ever played American Nightmare once, but from what I remember, I enjoyed the gameplay in that one a lot more, with greater weapons, enemies, & setting. The use of the Time Loop plot was also neat -- I love those -- plus a bit of the sequences where you have to "rewrite reality" were very memorable and cool. The concept of "nudging reality to create a pre-written situation" was really awesome, kind of like a "reverse butterfly effect"
I do hope the sequel goes a bit further into that metaphysical reality-morphing themes. Given where Control ended, I think that's likely.
Plus, this bonus QR Code in the Remaster you can find makes me super excited. The Return is gonna happen...!!
Finished Tormented Souls. This is probably the most OK game I have ever played, definitely top 5. This is not a bad game, this is not a great game. This is just a GAME!!!!!!!
I loved the influence of Resident Evil and Silent Hill but 90% of this game is puzzles and most of them are just absurdly hard to solve by myself, thus making the game longer than it should be. The combat is decent but the enemy variety was kind of lacking. The worst part is that someone didn't do a good job with the subtitles.
I just finished the original Resident Evil recently. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. The first time I played it was on PS3 and when I started it, the game FORCED me to use arrow buttons instead of the analog sticks. That made me rage quit really quick. Thankfully, the PS5 port had updated controls and surprisingly, it had a feature to save whenever I want and restart a part very quickly without reloading a file. This made the blind experience much better but I went with the manual saving (Ink Ribbons) so I can have that survival horror sentiment.
Although I would still say, as playing the REmake first: the original was a complete downgrade for me. Not because of the graphics but because of the content I was familiar. The original has no Lisa Trevor, no Crimson Heads, no puzzles like the Deadly Fours Masks and no lore-development. The original obviously makes me appreciate the REmake even more than already did. REmake is the EXACT vision Shinji Mikami wanted to make in 1996.
Finished Rhythm Heaven Megamix on my 3DS.
It's a nice entry in the series, serving as a "greatest hits" with a few new additions, though it has a few issues (either as a general complaint or as a RH veteran)
The game can be divided into 3 sections: The introduction/tutorial to the games, the Tower gautlet, and the final Heaven World trials.
The first third of the game is super easy as a veteran, featuring many games from the DS and Wii editions. The games themselves are also cut-down versions, lasting under a minute each, at least in their first appearance. This makes the first section tedious.
The few GBA entries and New entries do shake things up a bit with it being "new" stuff western audiences haven't seen which is a bit of a saving grace.
To put things into a quick and easy list:
Cons:
-- Remixes -- a franchise staple -- don't appear until completing the first third of the game, an odd choice.
-- Remixes are less catchy/memorable. Not sure why.
-- Controls only use the A, B, or D-pad buttons.
-- Very poor use of the 3DS. The only way to navigate the menus is with the D-Pad and Stylus, no either/or option. The Circle Pad's only use is for a side-game. Touch-screen option feels like an after-thought.
-- Menus are complex, and take longer to navigate than it should.
-- There is a Story... it's not great and often gets in the way of the game's flow (how ironic...) interrupting you after every game completed.
- No Endless Games available, a real shame...!
The end of the game is very enjoyable with 3 different remixes of most of the games in this title...
Here are the nine best VR horror games that provide extraordinary experiences, immersive graphics, and a soundtrack.
So I have finally finished Mass Effect: Andromeda. Final say on the matter...it's really not as bad as people say it is. Now don't get me wrong, there are some glaring issues and several minor ones that sort of compile up, but it's nowhere near terrible. Hell, I'd even say it's good, the problem is that it just doesn't compare to the original ME trilogy and I think that causes a lot of people's disdain towards it.
The Good:
The Bad:
Overall, I'd still say I enjoyed it, it just lacks the same magic and feel of the OT. As a standalone game, while nowhere near the best thing I've ever played, I still had fun. Overall, a 6.5/10, maybe a 7 if I'm feeling generous.
Finished Ape Out on my Switch recently. Snagged it for ~3$ in a sale. That's a steal IMO. I'd have gladly paid 10-15$ for this.
The concept is very simple, but the game is quite difficult.
You are an angry gorilla held in captivity. You need to get out.
Get this game. It's great. It'll last you a good few hours.
Still haven't finished the extra-long Epilogue. Still haven't finished any of the Harder albums.
Finished watching a playthrough of Prey (2017, Arkane). Whoaaa what a game...
It nails some great sci-fi themes of mystery, fear, and fascination of deadly alien species. The world-building is absolutely massive in the amount of readable files, audio logs, the general design and creation of the space station itself. The amount of side-missions at hand is also very impressive, constantly calling you to various areas of the ship to find specific objects or help specific people. The level design itself is also amazing, with multiple routes and methods to explore and navigate the ship.
A lot of the game has very, very spooky vibes though so I'm glad I chose to watch someone else play through it for me.
The ending -before the credits- is weirdly abrupt. Like, you get a 20-second cutscene and that's it. But the ending -after the credits- is where the game shows off it's final trump card. The whole deck is laid on the table and it's wild.
I watched Markiplier's playthrough and even he couldn't get through all the quests in the game. He was very thorough in reading as much as possible and exploring as much as he could manage, since he also had an intense fascination with the world (and space) itself.
He's got a 2.5 hour playthrough of the Roguelike DLC which I might check out sometime later. Roguelikes are cool and I'd love to see how Arkane tackles it.
It kind of makes me want to revisit Dishonored, for like the 4th attempt, even though every prior attempt has left me leaving it, bored. Maybe I just have to focus on the side-content because clearly Arkane loves that stuff.
(Maybe it's just that I'm bad at 1st Person stealth, or not using the right powers, or playing a total pacifist is slow and extremely tedious... I'll try one more time with Dishonored, but only because I've gotten in an Arkane mood.)
I will definitely be looking up a bunch of details on Prey's development though because it's a fantastic experience they've crafted here.
I am finally going to experience Jedi Fallen Order on PS5. It was awful on base PS4 so I hope they optimized it with next gen upgrade.
Went back to playing PUBG Moblie for the first time in the past 6 months.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon.
Started playing it for the first time and while I do like the amount of characters in it, I find the game difficult and also lacking a single fight (where you get to choose which character to fight for 1 player).
Edit: Forgot to mention that I miss when you can unlock characters in the game without having to spend real money on microtransactions.
I finished Demon's Souls Remake. Very beautiful game, probably the best PS5 exclusive I have played so far. This game gave a hard time surprisingly, I think it was a lot harder than the entire Dark Souls trilogy. I died to boss routes more than the bosses themselves and speaking of bosses, some were hit or miss. Most of them were very easy to deal with, there is only boss that gave me a huge headache which is the Flamelurker. There is also that pissed me the hell off and that is the Dragon God. That literally reminded me of Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls 1 and that is definitely not a good thing. It was more of a stupid puzzle rather. I have missed a lot of side quests I believe but I will save them for NG+.
Overall, I am soo glad I finally got to play the one that started the entire Souls franchise. Now that I have finished this game, I should get back to Elden Ring and finish that one as well.
I’ve been playing Elden Ring on and off, as I sometimes stop playing the game for a few weeks because the difficulty can be bothersome. However Elden Ring is easier then the other souls like games. I like the fact that George R.R. Martin also had some of his ideas thrown into the game which you can see in the armors your character and the enemies wear. I also love the exploration in these games and I do like getting invaded because it really makes you feel a bit of anxious as to how powerful your opponent is, what class did he pick, what magic will he use etc… it’s a really fun game. I just feel like the open world was a bit of a let down. But I feel like I am still pretty earlier in the game since I am up to Stormveil Castle.
I agree that Demon Souls Remake is beautiful. It is hands down the prettiest looking game on next gen consoles as of right now.
I made this screenshot in Elden Ring and I love it so much
Finished the Octo Expansion for Splatoon 2! Boy, am I glad that's done with!
It's a great expansion that actually gives you challenging levels, shorter experiences, and more varied objectives (instead of just "go from Point A to Point B")
Plus an open-ended level selection
But there are quite a few levels that are just HELL. Very tricky platforming, specific "avoid X or insta-death", or tough combat challenges, it can be frustrating.
Thankfully there's a skip option for each level (including the final level, a series of interconnected stages) you just have to spend enough time on each level to be able to buy your way through it.
But I rarely used it, unless I got into a serious roadblock where every level I had on-hand was super tough. It made me feel guilty not completing it myself.
So yeah. Good experience. I like some of the challenge, though some can go too far -- even in the cutscene-heavy epic final levels, I died a lot and that was unfortunate.
But that's done! Not sure if Splatoon 2 is of much use to me anymore, wasn't ever really too good at the multiplayer.
And maybe, I'll pick up S3 on a sale in the future -- I never owned a Splat game while it's live-service content was still underway. Plus the reported improvements on Main Campaign, 24/7 Salmon Run, Punk-Rock soundtrack, and other additions sound good.
I am officially done with my marathon of playing the Silent Hill games made by Team Silent for the first time. I recently finished Silent Hill 4 and here are my thoughts:
This game is totally different compared to the first three games as they said, considering that this was never originally meant to be a Silent Hill entry. But it does do something very unique.
As far as I know, this is the only SH game where the town itself makes no physical appearance (It has more of a background role) and although the atmosphere isn't as strong as the previous games, it still made me feel like I was playing a Silent Hill game. Unlike the previous entries, you live in an apartment which is used as sort of a hub area that serves the purpose of lore-building, item management and saving progress. This game has 5 different levels in total and you go through each of them TWICE in the entire game. Also, this game contains only TWO bosses and you don't encounter one until near the end of the game.
As far as the positives go, I love how this game creates its own identity while keeping the same spirit of the previous games. The story is not straightforward, making it more interesting to learn through the lore. The puzzles are very well balanced and there are none that are gamebreaking, except for one which I can only blame myself for not realizing. I love the enemy designs and the first half is what I would call perfect, almost.
As for the negatives, I do NOT like how they used stock sound effects for enemies, especially dogs. When one charges at you, they roar like a lion and when you stomp one, it makes a cheetah scream. I understand this game had development issues but couldn't find a dog to record his barking? The second half of the game is kind of sloppy because you pretty much go through the same levels again, only with different puzzles and you have a companion that you have to make sure they follow you in the next rooms. That was a mediocre change of pace.
Overall, Silent Hill 4 was very interesting. Not as amazing as the first games but it's definitely passable and I don't think it deserves the hate.
EDIT: Oops. After doing some research, it is said that Silent Hill 4 was actually always meant to be a Silent Hill entry rather a standalone game. My bad.
TUESDAY CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH!!!
Gonna be a very long write-up here, but I finally beat the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy!
Took me quite a while. Let me tell you, I am bad at this game. Also the game is way too particular with its game design.
The game consists of Investigation segments and Trial segments, one where you have to find clues and the other where you find contradictions in people's testimonies.
The Investigation bits are annoying in that you have to interact with things in a specific order for certain people to show up, or tell people about a specific person/thing, for them to open up about a new topic. It's very particular and there's no info on what to do next.
The Trial bits are where you have to press statements to reveal more info, and find contradictions with evidence in your case, or previous testimony. It is also very particular in how and when certain pieces of info are supposed to be revealed and how. Most of it I think was worded too vaguely, or sometimes I'd think too many steps ahead and present the wrong thing -- leading to many failures.
I've mentioned it before, but thankfully I found a Hints website that slowly reveals hints bit by bit to each step in the case. Helped guide me where I needed, reveal answers I was truly stumped by (and had no chances left on), and got me through it!
The game is full of flamboyant characters with puns for names. Great music and art as well. My only overall criticism is that the gameplay format doesn't evolve that much over the 3 games. It's also very visual-novel-y, lots of reading, and it made it hard to have to think oh I'll need to set aside an hour to get through this segment, or, This case might take 4-5 hours overall, I'd better not start it, cause I know It'll take me a while to get through it, I'll forget the details of the case.
The final case of PW 3 is a great one that ties up the main mystery/antagonist of 3, and a few of the lingerins mysteries of the trilogy. Very good.
Also I LOVE that the prosecutor in 3 is named after one of my favourite plays. Waiting for Godot. Such a suave guy, too.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I get the appeal of the series. I still prefer Ghost Trick from Shu Takumi's works...
Will probably revisit Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright soon, now that I'm well acquainted with PW and his common tropes/themes of his games.
Also I love that Alternate Judge is extremely Canadian, for no reason whatsoever.
The localization team had a lot of fun with this game, I'm sure.
So far into A Plague Tale Requiem, this game doesn't have a great performance but if we cut that, the game is an absolute blast. This is the EXACT opposite of what The Last of Us Part 2 had done. No annoying characters, expanded character relationships and improved gameplay.
Just finished the game. This game lived up to the hype and it's my second favorite game of 2022. It is just as amazing as the first game if not better. They improved a lot of the weak parts of the first game. Although I will say: the performance of the game is very weak. They need to fix the frame pacing and lock it at 60FPS as soon as possible.
I played Cyberpunk 2077 and honestly I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story is very well written, the characters have a lot of depth, the voice acting is great, and the world of Night City feels fully realised and lived in, which can be an issue when it comes to open world games. Johnny Silverhand is a fantastically written character. He went from someone I absolutely could not stand at the start to someone I would almost consider a friend by the end. Keanu Reaves's performance of the character is... admittedly weak at times much like his acting, but there are moments where he really gets to shine and actually pull of some range.
Relatively small note but I also have to give praise to the wide range of NPC's in the game. Often times in games like this you'll regularly see the same random NPC's over and over again but there are so many different variations that it wasn't often I'd find the same NPC twice, and even then there'd be some sort of different whether it be the style of clothes, skin colour or their cyberware.
The gameplay is fine. Nothing mind blowing but perfectly serviceable, though enemies could be really bullet spongey at times. The driving in the game is terrible, it's like controlling a slab of butter on a wet surface. Also the minimap is fucking god awful. At the very least, these issues can be fixed with the addition of some quality of life mods.
What can't be fixed with mods unfortunately is the fucking laundry list of bugs and glitches I encountered throughout my time with the game. It's been two years since the game launched and it's still at an abysmal state with many of the bugs ranging from minor but annoying, to completely game breaking. I don't know if I'm just really unlucky because part of the reason I even got the game was because I'd seen a lot of people saying most of the issues had been ironed out, or if these people were completely full of shit.
I would recommend getting the game but at a high sale, at least 50% off.
Also for fun, off the top of my head here's some of the bugs I encountered. Spoiler tagged because it's a fairly long list.
What ending did you get in CP 2077?
I ended up with what most people would call the worst ending which was selling V's soul to Arasaka. I could've chosen getting help from the Aldecaldos but as Johnny said, he didn't want to risk their lives. Also are you gonna try for the secret ending?
I attacked Arasaka alongside Rogue and the game ended with V in space doing a job for a mysterious client. I'll probably try and get a couple of the endings, the Aldecaldos and the secret ending (if I've hit the requirement), but I'll take a be taking a break from it for now.
Well it's a better ending then I got.
I finished A Plague Tales: Requiem about a week ago and have been letting it stew in my brain in order to forgo any potential "fresh off the game" bias.
Story and character-wise, it's much darker, more emotionally exhausting, and swerves even harder into the fantasy elements introduced in the first game. The voice work is nothing short of phenomenal. Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannan (Amicia and Hugo) both do a terrific job when it comes to the more emotional scenes in the game. There are a number of really raw performances especially when things get to much for the characters, and they can't help but just break down.
I do have to point out that for whatever reason, they've completely dropped the french accents for all the characters, despite Amicia and Hugo retaining their previous voice actors and the game still taking place in France. Instead everyone has an English accent. It's not a big deal, but there were a couple moments that took me out of the game for a bit, in particular there's a point where a character starts complaining about the British, whilst having a British accent.
In terms of gameplay, there's mostly improvements such as more tools being made available to Amicia to help her along her way and some tweaks to make things smoother and in general just more enjoyable to play. However, there's a de-emphasis on stealth which I was disappointed with. You can totally still sneak your way through levels, however at times it is either significantly harder or near impossible, forcing you to attack enemies head on. As someone who avoided killing as much as possible, it was wildly difficult.
Levels are also bigger in comparison to the first game, with more routes and hidden areas and loot for you to discover, though there definitely still are those tight claustrophobic areas filled with rats for you to wade through. To my surprise, there's even a massive open area filled with explorable locations, character interactions, loot and puzzles for you to leisurely discover that took me a good hour to go completely go through.
It's probably my Game of the Year. Requiem spins a wonderfully violent tale of hope and inevitibility, giving me some of the best voice acting performances I've heard from a game in a long while, for the most part improving on the gameplay elements from its predecessor, and finishes off with a horrifying but touching ending I won't soon forget. I love this game, and I love Amicia and Hugo. Also there's an after credits scene I found so insanely audacious that I couldn't help but laugh.
I never want to see another entry in this series ever again lmao.
For others, they either choose either The Walking Dead or The Last of Us as the most depressing story-driven game experience.
But for me, A Plague Tale Requiem surpassed both of them for me. I relate to Amicia and Hugo in so many ways considering that I am a little brother of 4 sisters. The gameplay was hugely improved and despite the bigger length, the pacing was not boring at all. This is the very first game sequel that managed to not only live up to the hype but also, surpass the original game in almost every way. It felt like I was playing Uncharted 2 all over again. If it weren't for the lack of performance mode, I would have had Requiem as my GOTY but Elden Ring still takes the cake. I DM'd Asobo Studios on Twitter, told them how much I loved the game and asked them if they are working on fixing the performance of the game. They didn't answer but they did give a heart emoji to my comments.
TBF, I dunno if it's just me but the voice acting in the first game wasn't perfect either. I can't tell if it's just the accent that I didn't like or some voice lines just felt rough.
I agree, this should not be a franchise at all. Also why fucking close the story in such a good note and then bait us with a sequel just after the credits? Very unoriginal and stupid. Should have saved it for a twitter announcement or something.
I still think the voice acting in the first game is great, but it's clear now that being forced to do a French accent held them back a bit.
I personally think it's less a sequel bait and more of a show of the cycle continuing, especially since it was set during the modern day. What I found hilarious was that it implied that Covid is actually caused by the Macula.