Valhalla Nursery with Cynthia Weaver. Holy shit there are so many jumpscares here what the fuck.
Thankfully I think that's the one point in the game where there's such a concentrated use of them in a short time.
By the end of the game, they used them a lot less (or I just got kind of desensitized to them by then) but yeah, there's just too too many overall. I especially hate the ones that trigger the moment you press a button for something.
Just... god damnit my heart!
I'm still enjoying Alan Wake 2, but I really do have to complain about the jumpscares again. They are so incredibly cheap it's ridiculous, e… morespecially considering how overly reliant the game is with them at times. The atmosphere, lighting, and sound design are more than enough to have my heart racing, but the face.jpeg + scream.mp3 dollar store indie horror game level jumpscares absolutely kill these moments for me.
It's especially bad in the
(Spoiler)
I've been getting further into Spider-Man 2 and it's been lots of fun.
I keep getting distracted by just swinging across the city. It's noticeably faster in this one, and that probably helps push the hero power fantasy even further.
The setpieces are very cool, and I love how Insomniac keep putting in silly one-off moments just to show off how fast they can load the city in one jump. (The Black Cat mission was especially cool, unfortunately short, but was clearly a "Watch This!" moment)
The Black Suit stuff is taking a while to get to the iconic "it takes Peter" moment. I was expecting to get it by the 4th or 5th mission, but nope, still not quite yet...
I really like the twist that Harry was unaware of it bonding to him, and he's started to use it like a superpower. That was cool. But the symbiote is clearly more interested in Peter, so I wonder how he's going to acquire it, especially if it's basically something keeping Harry alive...
I will say, some of the things are disappointing me in ways I didn't expect.
The combat seems way tougher, or the Heroes feel a lot weaker than the last game. Simple enemies take a while to defeat, usually needing more than one Air combo, which is weird.
The UI is also a little wild. I'm unsure how the Parry system works and when to use it vs dodging, and even then, fights can get so chaotic with different enemy variants and projectiles, it's hard to know when to dodge because my attention's being pulled by so many different attacks (the robots are really tripping me up).
Plus, a lot of the combat so far is chock-full of enemies with guns that try to shoot you every 3 seconds, always interrupting some combo against someone... It's quite annoying, especially in some of the drawn-out Hunters fights in the main missions.
The suits and the different colour swaps are cool, but most of them usually have one colour that so garish or clashes with the usual Spidey colour palette, I'm confused who approved it...
Take the Yellow variant of the Advanced 2.0… it’s so bright, and then there’s the white accent on his crotch and butt. Why?? None of the other suits use that detail, but someone decided to add that lmao
There's also noticeable omissions and a lack of a few QoL features we've needed for a while now...
There's no social media feed. What?? That was the best part of the previous two games' writing, and was fun to check in every once in a while. I've heard this game's story is the same length as the last one, so I wonder what kep the writing team occupied apart from that...
Podcast episodes keep getting interrupted by any side-activity you approach. This is even worse in this title, because you move so fast so you'll only have barely started listening to an episode of JJJ or Danika that you'll have to orbit around whatever Activity marker you might be near, just to hear it all before diving in, or else it'll just end... And the worst part --- there's no option in the menu to replay podcast episodes! Why is this not standard-issue? If any of them get interrupted, or you don't want to get held up by one before entering a mission, then that's it, you can't hear that story detail being talked about the city ever again unless you replay to that moment...
So strange to not have that at launch.
I finished Alan Wake 2! It's great, one of my favourite games of the year. Really good looking, great (and occasionally hammy) voice acting/acting, excellent audio design, fun characters, and a narrative that has a lot of artistic vision. I have absolutely no idea what was going on with the story like 60% of the time but I had a lot of fun with it. I enjoyed the gameplay in this A LOT more than the original Alan Wake. Gunplay feels good, collectibles are for the most part fun to find, and I have to give big praise to the murder board on Saga's side of the story, which I found to be just so incredibly satisfying.
Also got to mention that the PC port is actually really good. No massive frame drops and barely any stuttering aside from two or three random points in the game. I am especially impressed with the reality editing stuff with Alan Wake which changes environments seamlessly and near instantly.
I do have a few problems with the game. Like I've mentioned a couple times before, the jumpscares in this game are horrendously cheap and they lean on it way too often, especially in the middle of the game. The environments, lighting, and audio design are more than enough to loosen up anyone's sphincter, and ruining these moments with a cheap jumpscare like that really takes me out of the game. Also not the fan of enemies respawning. I've had a few moments where after taking out a group of three Taken and walking a few feet out of a "zone", they'd immediately respawn. There were a few visual glitches, mostly floating red orbs, but that's about it.
Overall, really enjoyed it and with everything that goes on with the story and world of the Remedy-verse, I'm excited to see what they cook up next!
Spoilers
Mr. Door is totally Saga's dad isn't he.
Seems like Ahti is helping out all the protags of the Remedy-verse in some way.
I wonder how Alan's story will continue since he's been re-trapped in the Dark Place but this time with Alice somewhere around to help guide him. Maybe his story will be concluded in the DLC or a potential AW3. Or maybe Remedy is working towards making an event game that will tie up Alan's, Saga's, and Jesse's stories.
Speaking of Alice, hot damn did my stomach sink when they revealed she had committed suicide. I felt so bad for Alan. Though thankfully it turned out to be a ruse lol.
Why'd they leave Saga's story on a cliffhanger. Just tell us if her daughter's alive!
With Remedy working on remakes for Max Payne 1 and 2, I wonder if they'll put in sneaky little references to their universe, or have Ahti pop up somewhere. That'd be pretty neat. Though more likely they might get the actor back for their own legally distinct version of Ahti.
With Remedy working on remakes for Max Payne 1 and 2, I wonder if they'll put in sneaky little references to their universe, or have Ahti pop up somewhere. That'd be pretty neat. Though more likely they might get the actor back for their own legally distinct version of Ahti.
I kinda doubt they'll have him appear in the Max Payne considering that the IP is owned by Rockstar and Remedy had to make a deal with them to let them remake them. Even harder since Max Payne 3 was the only one made by Rockstar itself and appears to use a different tone compared to the first two games.
I finished Alan Wake 2! It's great, one of my favourite games of the year. Really good looking, great (and occasionally hammy) voice acting/… moreacting, excellent audio design, fun characters, and a narrative that has a lot of artistic vision. I have absolutely no idea what was going on with the story like 60% of the time but I had a lot of fun with it. I enjoyed the gameplay in this A LOT more than the original Alan Wake. Gunplay feels good, collectibles are for the most part fun to find, and I have to give big praise to the murder board on Saga's side of the story, which I found to be just so incredibly satisfying.
Also got to mention that the PC port is actually really good. No massive frame drops and barely any stuttering aside from two or three random points in the game. I am especially impressed with the reality editing stuff with Alan Wake which changes environments seamlessly and near instantly.
I do have a few problems with the game… [view original content]
Yeah it's unlikely that the character would make an appearance, but considering Remedy's fondness of re-using actors I wouldn't be surprised if the same actor appeared in the game.
(Spoiler)
I kinda doubt they'll have him appear in the Max Payne considering that the IP is owned by Rockstar and Remedy had to make a de… moreal with them to let them remake them. Even harder since Max Payne 3 was the only one made by Rockstar itself and appears to use a different tone compared to the first two games.
Not even 8 hours in and I already think Jedi Survivor is sooo much better than Fallen Order. The sequel literally has a lot of things that were missing in the previous game.
Man, going from Alan Wake 2 to Spider-Man 2 is some serious writing whiplash.
Spidey 2 is good, has it's really great story moments, but there's just something about what's going on near the end here that's just... I dunno, I'm not vibing with?
(I've had Venom unleashed now, and things are moving really fast all of a sudden.)
The city's being taken over by the Symbiotes, MJ became a symbiote for a mission (and was labeled "Scream" in the subtitles for some random reason -- she should be called "Hair" since that's like the only notable trait to her Symbiote design/attacks.) and just now we had Spidey get ambushed by a whole bunch of Symbiotes and almost taken over by them, when Martin Li shows up so he can take Miles into a trippy ride through Peter's mind, to remove the Symbiote's hold on him, and also Martin uses up all of his powers to do this because he knows that for some reason, which "cures" Peter and now he has an Anti-Symbiote suit.
Just... slow down for a sec, give me some exposition, give me some development, don't just throw your characters into a quick scene just so they can get to a specific moment!
IDK, I'm tired and am heading to bed, but yeah something about the most recent 3 missions I played tonight are throwing me for a loop.
This is gonna go down as one of the best traversal systems in games, and especially for Spidey. OMG I had so much fun just swinging around and not wanting to start any main missions to interrupt that flow.
The story itself was pretty good, with some cool stakes of Peter getting further corrupted by the symbiote, becoming more and more dangerous, before his friends have to save him from himself essentially.
After that though I really had trouble taking the story seriously and following along with things.
The plot really rushes through itself to get to it's big symbiote climax with Venom. It's just one major plot beat after another with little explanation or set-up for them.
Martin Li randomly shows up to save Peter from the symbiotes trying to corrupt him again -- and also knows that he can transfer his power into Peter to act as a symbiote cure somehow.
I also thought the whole "mind scape adventure" thing was kinda silly overall.
Venom is after a meteor that will make him super powerful. He kinda just shows up with the first piece for some reason, no idea where that was. Also the city gets ovverun with symbiote goo extremely quickly, and that's before the whole meteorite business. I wish there were at least one line that explained how it's able to self replicate and spread so fast.
Norman Osborn tells the Spider-Men not to kill his son. So they don't. He's in a coma, but that's after Peter had to essentially kill him to save the city -- he's still alive though, technically yeah. But Norman probably wants revenge now too I guess.
Oh yeah and Miles' costume in the endgame is just SO BAD omg. Really cheesy, he did not cook with that.
I don't like the blue lava lamp aesthetic on his arms and the bright red colour. Nor do I like how his mask doesn't have webbing and the top of his head is sticking out! What about your Secret Identity, man??
I spent nearly all of my playthrough only using one suit for each character -- Advanced 2.0 for Peter, and Advanced Tech for Miles -- I tried to change Miles' endgame suit to a Red/Black style at least, but the final mission still resets it to the default colours. That's just sad, I am sad.
The combat feels a lot harder this time. It's WAY more chaotic and there are tons of counters and enemies to keep you dodging or parrying.
I never really got a hang of the parry system.
I also just don't like the way they've organized the spider-sense system. You keep having to swap looking between Spidey himself or the enemies. Plus I think the timing windows are given way too late. I've died and gone to low health way more than I should, and I feel like that's not supposed to happen. Maybe I'm just bad at the game, but I feel like I'm having a worse time with this combat than in the other titles.
I did like how in the final chapter, the Danikast podcast shited its gears into rallying New Yorkers together, and Dani's motto essentially became "The Spider-Men are doing their best to save the city, and we have to do our part too. Let's go be heroes."
WOO, that was pretty darn cool and I liked that angle they took.
Apart from that, I hope we get some quality of life features like Time of Day change post-game, or podcasts replays, or not locking specific suits to missions! because there's some really weird omissions I've already mentioned before, hope they come back.
I'd give it an 8. Story was lacking in the end, gameplay and traversal was awesome. Side content was pretty good.
Ooh, also there is a Stealth upgrade at the very end of a skill tree that lets you takedown 2 enemies at once from above. Feels like it takes way too long to unlock that, because I really only used that for the end...
Can't wait for New Game Plus though so I can be fully-powered up and swap suits to my heart's content! There's a lot that are really cool
Move over, Darth Vader. Because this is by far the hardest boss fight I have ever had the desire to face in a Star Wars story. I hope Disney considers a movie trilogy for him because there is a lot of potential for his character.
I’ve been missing The Walking Dead and thought I’d replay, and I’m reminded how laughably dumb some moments are.
🤪🤪🤪:
Lee: There’s a puddle of blood on the floor but hell with it I’ll just slip and fall
Lee: Oh shit gotta save Shawn and Duck from walkers imma run around the house instead of just going straight
David: Fugyoo Clementine how DARE you try to keep that baby alive we shoulda been got rid of his ass fug them kids but gotDAMN I sure miss him
Kate: Ay Javi you wan weed I’m a wifey-for-lifey but lemme eye-hump you anyway
Kenny: Wow Lee sure you saved my family from walkers raiders and wacky farm people even put my son to rest on my behalf but what’ve you done for MEEEEE lately?
Luke: Whaddaya mean Jane's gone?! Yeah, we gotta focus on Becca and the baby but where'm I gon get my booty now?!
Louis: I’m playin walker piñata but damn I’m starving why ain’t yall keepin the bunny?
Jane: Hey Clem sorry I left you behind even though I said I’d never leave you but it doesn’t count because I say so lol I’m Jane
As someone who lost interest in Star Wars because of Disney and its soulless sequel trilogy, I am very happy to say Jedi Survivor is the best Star Wars story I have experienced in a long time. I did enjoy Fallen Order but it didn't influence me that much. I also enjoyed the first two seasons of the Mandalorian but after so many bad decisions from Disney, they discouraged me to check out the later season and other Star Wars shows.
Jedi Survivor did the impossible and made me care about the characters that were completely new to this franchise. Cal Kestis is such a great character with an amazing arc, the gameplay as highly improved, souls-like gameplay may not be for everyone but it helps the Jedi character feel more lore-accurate without being OP and the exploration was much better than in the first game. This game makes Fallen Order look like a tech demo and I barely have any reason to revisit it after this game.
Here is a twist though. Not only is this my favorite Star Wars game but it might also be my favorite Star Wars piece of media of all time. I liked it more than the movies (Especially the sequels) because I just think video games do a better job at making me feel immersed than a movie. The only bad things I can say about it is the performance issues and some immersion breaking bugs.
Like Greez, Merrin and Bode t-posing when you take Mantis off from Koboh.
Despite all that, it doesn't stop me to say this is my third favorite game of the year and what's even crazy is that I liked it MUCH more than Spider-Man 2. Jedi Survivor should have been nominated for Best Narrative instead of that game because Spider-Man 2 had a 10/10 story until the third act which was short and rushed as hell.
I finished Jedi Survivor just recently.
As someone who lost interest in Star Wars because of Disney and its soulless sequel trilogy, I … moream very happy to say Jedi Survivor is the best Star Wars story I have experienced in a long time. I did enjoy Fallen Order but it didn't influence me that much. I also enjoyed the first two seasons of the Mandalorian but after so many bad decisions from Disney, they discouraged me to check out the later season and other Star Wars shows.
Jedi Survivor did the impossible and made me care about the characters that were completely new to this franchise. Cal Kestis is such a great character with an amazing arc, the gameplay as highly improved, souls-like gameplay may not be for everyone but it helps the Jedi character feel more lore-accurate without being OP and the exploration was much better than in the first game. This game makes Fallen Order look like a tech demo and I barely have any reason to revisit … [view original content]
I played Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, and I really enjoyed! Just some quick thoughts.
The game is a murder mystery musical featuring the Greek pantheon of Gods known in the game as Idols (think Fables from... Fables). It involves Grace, a human woman who has been framed for the murder of Calliope, an Idol with the power to make people express themselves through song. Grace inherits said ability and has three days to prove herself innocent or be executed. Throughout Grace's journey, she'll meet various Idols like Persephone, Apollo, and Pan, who may or may not help you uncover the real culprit. You'll be making choices that'll affect your relationships, and lyrics that will steer songs, and story elements into different directions. During the musical moments, there are three types of choices. Green, blue, and red. Green tends to relate to kindness and empathy, blue is sadness and melancholy, while red is usually anger and rebellion.
I like the characters, the voice acting's great, the character designs and visuals are appealing, and most important of all the music is pretty damn good for the most part, though I'm not gonna say every song is a banger. Goddamn Laura Bailey has got good pipes. Picking lyrics is really fun as it can change the tone and genre of the song. Though sometimes, if you aren't consistent with the type of emotion, it does kind of feel a little bipolar lol. There are so many options for each song that the studio released four different albums for the game. Green, Blue and Red, as well as the Pantheon Edition which is a nice mix of different choices.
The game definitely feels like it takes inspiration from Fables and The Wolf Among Us. It's much lighter in tone, but with the environments, the Idols hiding themselves from humanity, and the murder mystery aspect, I'd be surprised if they weren't part of the inspiration behind the game.
Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's fun, the music's good, the characters are interesting, and with the number of choices and the effects on the music, you'd be pressed to have the same playthrough twice in a row. It took me 6 hours to finish and I'm very tempted to jump back into it just to hear the other music variations.
I played Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, and I really enjoyed! Just some quick thoughts.
The game is a murder mystery musical featur… moreing the Greek pantheon of Gods known in the game as Idols (think Fables from... Fables). It involves Grace, a human woman who has been framed for the murder of Calliope, an Idol with the power to make people express themselves through song. Grace inherits said ability and has three days to prove herself innocent or be executed. Throughout Grace's journey, she'll meet various Idols like Persephone, Apollo, and Pan, who may or may not help you uncover the real culprit. You'll be making choices that'll affect your relationships, and lyrics that will steer songs, and story elements into different directions. During the musical moments, there are three types of choices. Green, blue, and red. Green tends to relate to kindness and empathy, blue is sadness and melancholy, while red is usually anger and rebellion.… [view original content]
Maaan, I'm just really in love with games that have smooth traversal systems lately.
I kept fooling around in Spider-Man 2 because it was so fun, and I just picked up Dying Light 2 and I couldn't care less about the story missions sending me everywhere, I just wanna parkour across buildings!
Actually, about Dying Light 2, it's decent, though has some glaring issues IMO.
The story has a terrible hook. Your protagonist Aiden is looking for his sister, as they got seperated while young kids. The sister is given very little to no characterisation or any reason given as to why me, the player, should care or be interested in this, since she's only relegated to flashbacks so far and opens every flashback calling for "Aidenbobaiden" omg please stop, writers.
It sucks feeling underpowered at the start, especially missing quite a few key skills like the roll or slide. But that's just how the game works and I've just gotta play more and more to get to an experienced level.
The game focuses way way too hard on RPG elements. There are multiple different gear pieces to find, minor percentages to sift through, tons of tiny upgrades to commit to your tools, and lots of tedious loot grinding.
Also, all enemies, even the street-level zombies in this horror-centric game, has health bars if you have the full HUD turned on. What. The Heck.
Thankfully you can hide those so it's more immersive, but damn, wild choice.
The writing is also pretty meh. There's dialogue trees to handle, but it's all very repetitive and forced.
One of the first few characters tells you that you need a special Biomarker bracelet to be let into the main base. Then the next two dialogue responses will each tell you, again, even though we just established this a minute ago, that you need to find a Biomarker bracelet to be let into the main base.
But overall I'm having lots of fun with the parkour. I heard that they made it super floaty and moon-jump like at launch, but thanks to updates they added a more realistic, weighty, momentum-based option that feels a lot more similar to the first game's systems.
Actually, I saw a review by Purposeless Rabbitholes today that actually puts together a lot of the good and bad I've seen so far -- and I'm still only a few hours into the start of the game -- and it just keeps this weird lackluster quality throughout... damn!
At least the parkour and combat is fun and gets better the whole way through!
Happy Holidays, everyone! For the this holiday, I decided to play Alone in the Dark 2 which ironically has holiday theme to it.
It is unfortunate for me to say I didn't like this game. This game is a huge downgrade from the original and you can easily tell when you look at it. The atmosphere is too colorful, it's not scary, the puzzle are absurd and nonsensical, they didn't improve the gameplay (It plays the same as the original) and they had the audacity to include enemies with guns in this entire game. It seems like the game was either rushed or the developers just didn't understand what made the original so good. Why did they have to make this game heavily focused on combat? It's extremely clunky and you can't even tell where the armed enemies are standing because the camera won't let you see them unless you move to a different position.
The only positive that I can think of is the cutscene animation. Those were smoothly well made for a game in 1993. That's probably the only thing they improved from the original.
Overall, this game is ok in general but a terrible horror game AND a terrible addition to this franchise. I don't recommend it unless you are 100% curious about it for a game of its time. Alone in the Dark 2 is not a good example of how to create a sequel to a Survival Horror classic.
The last game I tried really playing was Autonauts vs Piratebots. Turned out it was too difficult of a game for the little one and I to grasp. Cute idea though
I finished Alone in the Dark 3 as well, in one sitting.
This one does things a little bit better than AITD2 but it still far behind from what made the original one so good and revolutionary. It lacked the horror, the story and lore got soo much weirder that I stopped caring about what's happening and the puzzle design sucked. It also still had enemies with guns but luckily, they weren't as annoying. Unfortunately, the devs didn't do anything to change the game design. It plays like the original, with a few improved controls but it brought nothing new to the table.
Overall, the first one is still the only one that I would recommend for survival horror community. I wouldn't even consider the sequels to be part of that genre. They are more like games made for kids to receive in their cereal boxes. It feels like the Iron Man movie trilogy. A great start with a terrible following. Luckily, the next game seems to be much different so I am excited to play that.
I finished Alone in the Dark 3 as well, in one sitting.
This one does things a little bit better than AITD2 but it still far behind fro… morem what made the original one so good and revolutionary. It lacked the horror, the story and lore got soo much weirder that I stopped caring about what's happening and the puzzle design sucked. It also still had enemies with guns but luckily, they weren't as annoying. Unfortunately, the devs didn't do anything to change the game design. It plays like the original, with a few improved controls but it brought nothing new to the table.
Overall, the first one is still the only one that I would recommend for survival horror community. I wouldn't even consider the sequels to be part of that genre. They are more like games made for kids to receive in their cereal boxes. It feels like the Iron Man movie trilogy. A great start with a terrible following. Luckily, the next game seems to be much different so I am excited to play that.
Bought Days Gone on the Steam sale but ended up refunding it after an hour and a half.
The cutscenes are cut together incredibly awkwardly, especially at the start. There's no sense of proper flow or cohesion. There's a scene after the prologue of Deacon, the main character, chasing a dude and after you're given control for about 10 seconds to run after him, it awkwardly fades into another cutscene where Deacon has his gun up and the dude suddenly has a hole in his chest. You don't even see the shot. Like why.
The gunplay is just straight up unsatisfying. There's no real recoil or any feeling with your impacts. I almost refunded the game after I shot the shotgun ONCE and it felt like shooting a virtual bb gun. I made a manual save and quit, went back to the game later only to find that my manual save means nothing and it just booted me back to an autosave almost half an hour before. Why even let me save manually.
Currently playing the Shadow of the Colossus remaster. Never played the original game before, but had it on the back burner because it seemed like it was up my alley. Really loving it so far.
Been playing a lot of Lethal Company with friends recently. I've never played a game with as much naturally occurring comedy as this. It's nuts how intentionally and unintentionally funny this game can be.
Omg dude I would love to hook up for a game together. If you're up for it at least.
(I'm not that great and often die in unknown ways if I'm left alone!)
Been playing a lot of Lethal Company with friends recently. I've never played a game with as much naturally occurring comedy as this. It's nuts how intentionally and unintentionally funny this game can be.
Omg dude I would love to hook up for a game together. If you're up for it at least.
(I'm not that great and often die in unknown ways if I'm left alone!)
I played This Bed We Made, a noir inspired choose your own adventure type of game set in latr 1950's Montreal, Canada where you play a busybody hotel maid who discovers a sinister mystery that may put the lives of some of the hotel guests in danger. Throughout the game you'll encounter puzzles, discover a ever-growing list of evidence, and choices that will affect the guests and your fellow employees while having to juggle your actual job of cleaning up rooms.
I thought the game was great! Really fun and I found the mystery to be incredibly engaging. Cleaning up rooms and finding evidence feels very satisfying, the characters are layered and interesting, even the ones you don't meet as you form parasocial relationships with them, and deciding what to do with some of the evidence adds a surprising amount of tension. The game's not super long, about 5 hours (almost 7 if you include the time I spent trying to get the other endings) for me and there's quite a bit of hidden things that you could find if you're a completionist. My only complaints are that some of the character models, look quite outdated, the animations are pretty stiff, and some of the final outcomes are honestly quite hard to get as the specific tasks you have to do aren't super clear, which can be frustrating.
Other than that I really enjoyed playing it, especially if you're a fan of mysteries and whodunnits! I'd love to see another game of this style by the devs.
So, I played and finished the horror game tech demo that was announced in last State of Play, Silent Hill: The Short Message.
This game was pretty decent. It focuses very heavily on themes like suicide, bullying and depression. So if you suffer from one of these, I wouldn't recommend playing it. Short Message doesn't have much to offer gameplaywise, it's just running and exploration. Though, it does feature a challenge in which you are being chased by a creature in three different occassions.
Speaking of which, the creature has a VERY original look and it's easily the highlight of the demo for me.
It's also the fact that there is a big puzzle in which you have collect items to open a door while being chased by that creature. There is no place for you to take a break and think. That sequence did a great job at keeping me on edge.
With the story that it tells, it does a decent job at delivering the message of the themes I mentioned. The demo also uses references from the previous games, especially the first four.
The only complaint that I have is that the game is too....modernish? What I mean is that the game takes place right in the modern years. They even mentioned COVID-19. The game is not scary due to the lack of subtlety. Also, the lip-synch is fucking weird. Was the lip movement meant for the japanesse dub? Also also, because it takes place in 2020's, it doesn't really have the best dialogue.
Overall, Silent Hill: The Short Message was a surprise release but nothing to write home about. Since it's free, I'd say give it a shot. It's only 2 hours long.
Last night I started Resident Evil 3 Remake, and yeah, I can see already how it's trying to be a more, kind of linear action-horror focused entry that a lot of fans didn't like because it deviated from the original's heavy survival-horror roots (and probably also removed iconic segments) as it continued off of RE2's theme.
Like, RE2, you get a slow spooky prologue section at a gas station where you're introduced to the zombies and controls, then are essentially let loose in the RPD to find your way around -- even if many paths are blocked off for now.
But RE3 wears its action themes on its sleeve, and already feels like a much different, guided, maybe kinda product-of-a-rush game than RE2 was.
Starts off with a dream sequence, then into a scripted chase sequence with lots of small cutscene interstitials, then a scene where you learn info by following a guy and in a cutscene, until finally the game starts to open up as I'm given my first task and first save point/safe haven area.
Interested to see how this unfolds and if I'll end up liking it, since I've never played the originals so I have nothing to base any pre-conceived expectations on.
So I just 100% Jedi: Survivor last night after that freaking nightmare of a double-rancor force fracture. Seriously, that was so ridiculous I went from Jedi Master difficulty to Jedi Knight. It irritated the hell out of me.
Safe to say I loved the game. Now there were performance problems on my Series X. Crashed somewhere between 6-10 times over the game, almost always on Koboh. Sometimes lost progress. Textures would load slowly when turning fast, but...that was it. I was on Performance Mode the whole time and I am pleased with it. It is a lovely looking game. Koboh is really wonderfully imagined. I also enjoyed Jedha, though must admit it all started to blend in together. Coruscant is a great starting planet, and I like the contrasts between the Shattered Moon and Nova Garon. The saloon is really fun; I loved the collectibles and all the interesting characters you can recruit. Good conversations.
The combat is great, though I am annoyed at myself for now using some of the force powers, i.e. mind trick, as much as I could. That's one thing they could have done more on, making the player use those more often. I did cheese the super mogu fight with it at least. The enemies were generally good. They made a wise choice bringing over all the regular Imperial enemies from the last game, and the new ones they added definitely made the combat more challenging in a good way (though I hate fighting the sentry droids). It was also very smart of them to focus on making a truly distinctive second faction in the Bedlam Raiders; I really enjoyed the diversity of their troops, though the B2s and commando droids annoyed me greatly. The boss fights were good, except that fucking Spawn of Oggdo Boggdo and the rancor, which killed more than anything else in this game. I played mostly on Jedi Knight, only to turn it up towards the third act because it was feeling too easy, but still enjoyed it. The stance-breakdown of combat is a great idea; I got use out of every stances. The boss fights were good.
The Dagan Gera fights were enjoyable. The final one was really beautiful and I loved how he mirrored some of Cal's stances and I loved the final boss Bode Akuna, which I defeated in one try but ran out of stims and down to half health but loved how he started off in a blaster-stance before going into something similar to crossguard. The Vader fight was cool but irritating to be unfamiliar with all my abilities. The Rayvis fight was a great idea and quite interesting.
Now, as for the story...
They really need to redesign that databank. Into the end of the first act, I noticed that Bode Akuna had 5 entries and I only had 2 / 5, whereas other characters like ostensible main antagonist and titular character Dagan Gera had 3 and returning characters like Merrin had 4 and Cere and Cordova (a great, unexpected but welcome addition) quickly got 2 out of 3. I also realized that, after killing Rayvis and getting ready to confront Gera for the 3rd time that I was only like 65% through the chapters of the game. There was room for another Imperial enemy, so it all seemed like that Vader was going to show up. It was very suspect. Added to the fact that Bode seemed quite friendly and mentioned his daughter...based on the databank alone I predicted something was going on with him, and that kind of lends you to thinking someone becomes a bad guy and that people die. Then, that awkward conversation after you kill Dagan Gera and about him staying behind seemed mega-sus. I thought he might have gotten possessed by Gera to be honest. However, I applaud them for making a foreseeable twist depth by making him a Jedi. That was a great idea, and honestly it made a lot of sense. Fun, interesting idea that really made the theme of the game called Jedi: Survivor great. "You're not the only one who survived...". The Jedi's cannibalization of each other is a really interesting theme.
Anyway, the story is enjoyable. It has a strong start, a good second act climax and strong act. It is bloated at times, especially on Jedha even though it has some cool moments, where you have to do all this journeying. Thank goodness there's fast travel. There are funny bits and badass bits and there are sad bits. The cool Koboh stuff, these High Republic ruins, a secret planet, and a survivor from long ago...so many interesting ideas.
Although they definitely wasted the idea of a Jedi from centuries surviving into the modern day. There are so many interactions that should have been had that were not. A cool design and a great idea, so much more should have done --- and now this idea can't be used again. You only really get it in his boss fight.
They didn't want Skoova, one of the greatest Star Wars characters ever that had me laughing so hard, or Turgle, a loveable bizarrely designed character that I enjoyed greatly. An astromech droid DJ? Hilarious and musically delightful. The prehistoric American West vibe of Koboh really worked well with this band of characters. A great soundtrack backing it helped. Congrats on the Grammy win.
I just hope the 3rd game doesn't do a predictable route where Cal mentors Kata like something you see in God of War or the Last of Us. And I do hope they continue the idea of making non-Imperial enemies prominent --- the Bedlam Raiders really made for interesting fights rather than just stormtroopers.
The boss fights were good, except that fucking Spawn of Oggdo Boggdo and the rancor
Whoever designed those fights are fuckin' evil. Why on Earth would they give boss fights one hit kill moves.
Although they definitely wasted the idea of a Jedi from centuries surviving into the modern day.
Yeeaaahhh, I like Dagan and all but I wish he was in the game more instead of just a handful of cutscenes and the three fights. It kind of makes me wish not everything we see had to be from Cal's perspective.
The prehistoric American West vibe of Koboh really worked well with this band of characters
I loved these fuckin' characters, they were just so silly and fun to interact with! I really hope they pop up in J3di.
I just hope the 3rd game doesn't do a predictable route where Cal mentors Kata like something you see in God of War or the Last of Us.
I honestly don't see how it could be anything else but that lol.
So I just 100% Jedi: Survivor last night after that freaking nightmare of a double-rancor force fracture. Seriously, that was so ridiculous … moreI went from Jedi Master difficulty to Jedi Knight. It irritated the hell out of me.
Safe to say I loved the game. Now there were performance problems on my Series X. Crashed somewhere between 6-10 times over the game, almost always on Koboh. Sometimes lost progress. Textures would load slowly when turning fast, but...that was it. I was on Performance Mode the whole time and I am pleased with it. It is a lovely looking game. Koboh is really wonderfully imagined. I also enjoyed Jedha, though must admit it all started to blend in together. Coruscant is a great starting planet, and I like the contrasts between the Shattered Moon and Nova Garon. The saloon is really fun; I loved the collectibles and all the interesting characters you can recruit. Good conversations.
The combat is great, though I am annoy… [view original content]
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Valhalla Nursery with Cynthia Weaver. Holy shit there are so many jumpscares here what the fuck.
Thankfully I think that's the one point in the game where there's such a concentrated use of them in a short time.
By the end of the game, they used them a lot less (or I just got kind of desensitized to them by then) but yeah, there's just too too many overall. I especially hate the ones that trigger the moment you press a button for something.
Just... god damnit my heart!
I've been getting further into Spider-Man 2 and it's been lots of fun.
I keep getting distracted by just swinging across the city. It's noticeably faster in this one, and that probably helps push the hero power fantasy even further.
The setpieces are very cool, and I love how Insomniac keep putting in silly one-off moments just to show off how fast they can load the city in one jump. (The Black Cat mission was especially cool, unfortunately short, but was clearly a "Watch This!" moment)
The Black Suit stuff is taking a while to get to the iconic "it takes Peter" moment. I was expecting to get it by the 4th or 5th mission, but nope, still not quite yet...
I really like the twist that Harry was unaware of it bonding to him, and he's started to use it like a superpower. That was cool. But the symbiote is clearly more interested in Peter, so I wonder how he's going to acquire it, especially if it's basically something keeping Harry alive...
I will say, some of the things are disappointing me in ways I didn't expect.
The combat seems way tougher, or the Heroes feel a lot weaker than the last game. Simple enemies take a while to defeat, usually needing more than one Air combo, which is weird.
The UI is also a little wild. I'm unsure how the Parry system works and when to use it vs dodging, and even then, fights can get so chaotic with different enemy variants and projectiles, it's hard to know when to dodge because my attention's being pulled by so many different attacks (the robots are really tripping me up).
Plus, a lot of the combat so far is chock-full of enemies with guns that try to shoot you every 3 seconds, always interrupting some combo against someone... It's quite annoying, especially in some of the drawn-out Hunters fights in the main missions.
The suits and the different colour swaps are cool, but most of them usually have one colour that so garish or clashes with the usual Spidey colour palette, I'm confused who approved it...
Take the Yellow variant of the Advanced 2.0… it’s so bright, and then there’s the white accent on his crotch and butt. Why??
None of the other suits use that detail, but someone decided to add that lmao
There's also noticeable omissions and a lack of a few QoL features we've needed for a while now...
There's no social media feed. What?? That was the best part of the previous two games' writing, and was fun to check in every once in a while. I've heard this game's story is the same length as the last one, so I wonder what kep the writing team occupied apart from that...
Podcast episodes keep getting interrupted by any side-activity you approach. This is even worse in this title, because you move so fast so you'll only have barely started listening to an episode of JJJ or Danika that you'll have to orbit around whatever Activity marker you might be near, just to hear it all before diving in, or else it'll just end...
And the worst part --- there's no option in the menu to replay podcast episodes! Why is this not standard-issue? If any of them get interrupted, or you don't want to get held up by one before entering a mission, then that's it, you can't hear that story detail being talked about the city ever again unless you replay to that moment...
So strange to not have that at launch.
I finished Alan Wake 2! It's great, one of my favourite games of the year. Really good looking, great (and occasionally hammy) voice acting/acting, excellent audio design, fun characters, and a narrative that has a lot of artistic vision. I have absolutely no idea what was going on with the story like 60% of the time but I had a lot of fun with it. I enjoyed the gameplay in this A LOT more than the original Alan Wake. Gunplay feels good, collectibles are for the most part fun to find, and I have to give big praise to the murder board on Saga's side of the story, which I found to be just so incredibly satisfying.
Also got to mention that the PC port is actually really good. No massive frame drops and barely any stuttering aside from two or three random points in the game. I am especially impressed with the reality editing stuff with Alan Wake which changes environments seamlessly and near instantly.
I do have a few problems with the game. Like I've mentioned a couple times before, the jumpscares in this game are horrendously cheap and they lean on it way too often, especially in the middle of the game. The environments, lighting, and audio design are more than enough to loosen up anyone's sphincter, and ruining these moments with a cheap jumpscare like that really takes me out of the game. Also not the fan of enemies respawning. I've had a few moments where after taking out a group of three Taken and walking a few feet out of a "zone", they'd immediately respawn. There were a few visual glitches, mostly floating red orbs, but that's about it.
Overall, really enjoyed it and with everything that goes on with the story and world of the Remedy-verse, I'm excited to see what they cook up next!
Spoilers
With Remedy working on remakes for Max Payne 1 and 2, I wonder if they'll put in sneaky little references to their universe, or have Ahti pop up somewhere. That'd be pretty neat. Though more likely they might get the actor back for their own legally distinct version of Ahti.
I kinda doubt they'll have him appear in the Max Payne considering that the IP is owned by Rockstar and Remedy had to make a deal with them to let them remake them. Even harder since Max Payne 3 was the only one made by Rockstar itself and appears to use a different tone compared to the first two games.
Yeah it's unlikely that the character would make an appearance, but considering Remedy's fondness of re-using actors I wouldn't be surprised if the same actor appeared in the game.
Now I bought 6 games in total this year because I am downloading Jedi Survivor right now. The size of that game is fucking crazy though.
Not even 8 hours in and I already think Jedi Survivor is sooo much better than Fallen Order. The sequel literally has a lot of things that were missing in the previous game.
Man, going from Alan Wake 2 to Spider-Man 2 is some serious writing whiplash.
Spidey 2 is good, has it's really great story moments, but there's just something about what's going on near the end here that's just... I dunno, I'm not vibing with?
(I've had Venom unleashed now, and things are moving really fast all of a sudden.)
The city's being taken over by the Symbiotes, MJ became a symbiote for a mission (and was labeled "Scream" in the subtitles for some random reason -- she should be called "Hair" since that's like the only notable trait to her Symbiote design/attacks.) and just now we had Spidey get ambushed by a whole bunch of Symbiotes and almost taken over by them, when Martin Li shows up so he can take Miles into a trippy ride through Peter's mind, to remove the Symbiote's hold on him, and also Martin uses up all of his powers to do this because he knows that for some reason, which "cures" Peter and now he has an Anti-Symbiote suit.
Just... slow down for a sec, give me some exposition, give me some development, don't just throw your characters into a quick scene just so they can get to a specific moment!
IDK, I'm tired and am heading to bed, but yeah something about the most recent 3 missions I played tonight are throwing me for a loop.
Finished Spider-Man 2. Got 100% last night too.
This is gonna go down as one of the best traversal systems in games, and especially for Spidey. OMG I had so much fun just swinging around and not wanting to start any main missions to interrupt that flow.
The story itself was pretty good, with some cool stakes of Peter getting further corrupted by the symbiote, becoming more and more dangerous, before his friends have to save him from himself essentially.
After that though I really had trouble taking the story seriously and following along with things.
The plot really rushes through itself to get to it's big symbiote climax with Venom. It's just one major plot beat after another with little explanation or set-up for them.
Martin Li randomly shows up to save Peter from the symbiotes trying to corrupt him again -- and also knows that he can transfer his power into Peter to act as a symbiote cure somehow.
I also thought the whole "mind scape adventure" thing was kinda silly overall.
Venom is after a meteor that will make him super powerful. He kinda just shows up with the first piece for some reason, no idea where that was. Also the city gets ovverun with symbiote goo extremely quickly, and that's before the whole meteorite business. I wish there were at least one line that explained how it's able to self replicate and spread so fast.
Norman Osborn tells the Spider-Men not to kill his son. So they don't. He's in a coma, but that's after Peter had to essentially kill him to save the city -- he's still alive though, technically yeah. But Norman probably wants revenge now too I guess.
Oh yeah and Miles' costume in the endgame is just SO BAD omg. Really cheesy, he did not cook with that.
I don't like the blue lava lamp aesthetic on his arms and the bright red colour. Nor do I like how his mask doesn't have webbing and the top of his head is sticking out! What about your Secret Identity, man??
I spent nearly all of my playthrough only using one suit for each character -- Advanced 2.0 for Peter, and Advanced Tech for Miles -- I tried to change Miles' endgame suit to a Red/Black style at least, but the final mission still resets it to the default colours. That's just sad, I am sad.
The combat feels a lot harder this time. It's WAY more chaotic and there are tons of counters and enemies to keep you dodging or parrying.
I never really got a hang of the parry system.
I also just don't like the way they've organized the spider-sense system. You keep having to swap looking between Spidey himself or the enemies. Plus I think the timing windows are given way too late. I've died and gone to low health way more than I should, and I feel like that's not supposed to happen. Maybe I'm just bad at the game, but I feel like I'm having a worse time with this combat than in the other titles.
I did like how in the final chapter, the Danikast podcast shited its gears into rallying New Yorkers together, and Dani's motto essentially became "The Spider-Men are doing their best to save the city, and we have to do our part too. Let's go be heroes."
WOO, that was pretty darn cool and I liked that angle they took.
Apart from that, I hope we get some quality of life features like Time of Day change post-game, or podcasts replays, or not locking specific suits to missions! because there's some really weird omissions I've already mentioned before, hope they come back.
I'd give it an 8. Story was lacking in the end, gameplay and traversal was awesome. Side content was pretty good.
Ooh, also there is a Stealth upgrade at the very end of a skill tree that lets you takedown 2 enemies at once from above. Feels like it takes way too long to unlock that, because I really only used that for the end...
Can't wait for New Game Plus though so I can be fully-powered up and swap suits to my heart's content! There's a lot that are really cool
Move over, Darth Vader. Because this is by far the hardest boss fight I have ever had the desire to face in a Star Wars story. I hope Disney considers a movie trilogy for him because there is a lot of potential for his character.
I’ve been missing The Walking Dead and thought I’d replay, and I’m reminded how laughably dumb some moments are.
🤪🤪🤪:
Lee: There’s a puddle of blood on the floor but hell with it I’ll just slip and fall
Lee: Oh shit gotta save Shawn and Duck from walkers imma run around the house instead of just going straight
David: Fugyoo Clementine how DARE you try to keep that baby alive we shoulda been got rid of his ass fug them kids but gotDAMN I sure miss him
Kate: Ay Javi you wan weed I’m a wifey-for-lifey but lemme eye-hump you anyway
Kenny: Wow Lee sure you saved my family from walkers raiders and wacky farm people even put my son to rest on my behalf but what’ve you done for MEEEEE lately?
Luke: Whaddaya mean Jane's gone?! Yeah, we gotta focus on Becca and the baby but where'm I gon get my booty now?!
Louis: I’m playin walker piñata but damn I’m starving why ain’t yall keepin the bunny?
Jane: Hey Clem sorry I left you behind even though I said I’d never leave you but it doesn’t count because I say so lol I’m Jane
I like them all but what a trip lol
I finished Jedi Survivor just recently.
As someone who lost interest in Star Wars because of Disney and its soulless sequel trilogy, I am very happy to say Jedi Survivor is the best Star Wars story I have experienced in a long time. I did enjoy Fallen Order but it didn't influence me that much. I also enjoyed the first two seasons of the Mandalorian but after so many bad decisions from Disney, they discouraged me to check out the later season and other Star Wars shows.
Jedi Survivor did the impossible and made me care about the characters that were completely new to this franchise. Cal Kestis is such a great character with an amazing arc, the gameplay as highly improved, souls-like gameplay may not be for everyone but it helps the Jedi character feel more lore-accurate without being OP and the exploration was much better than in the first game. This game makes Fallen Order look like a tech demo and I barely have any reason to revisit it after this game.
Here is a twist though. Not only is this my favorite Star Wars game but it might also be my favorite Star Wars piece of media of all time. I liked it more than the movies (Especially the sequels) because I just think video games do a better job at making me feel immersed than a movie. The only bad things I can say about it is the performance issues and some immersion breaking bugs.
Like Greez, Merrin and Bode t-posing when you take Mantis off from Koboh.
Despite all that, it doesn't stop me to say this is my third favorite game of the year and what's even crazy is that I liked it MUCH more than Spider-Man 2. Jedi Survivor should have been nominated for Best Narrative instead of that game because Spider-Man 2 had a 10/10 story until the third act which was short and rushed as hell.
Also, I love this relationship so much.
My man. Second best space girlfriend in all of gaming (behind Tali'Zorah, obviously)
I played Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, and I really enjoyed! Just some quick thoughts.
The game is a murder mystery musical featuring the Greek pantheon of Gods known in the game as Idols (think Fables from... Fables). It involves Grace, a human woman who has been framed for the murder of Calliope, an Idol with the power to make people express themselves through song. Grace inherits said ability and has three days to prove herself innocent or be executed. Throughout Grace's journey, she'll meet various Idols like Persephone, Apollo, and Pan, who may or may not help you uncover the real culprit. You'll be making choices that'll affect your relationships, and lyrics that will steer songs, and story elements into different directions. During the musical moments, there are three types of choices. Green, blue, and red. Green tends to relate to kindness and empathy, blue is sadness and melancholy, while red is usually anger and rebellion.
I like the characters, the voice acting's great, the character designs and visuals are appealing, and most important of all the music is pretty damn good for the most part, though I'm not gonna say every song is a banger. Goddamn Laura Bailey has got good pipes. Picking lyrics is really fun as it can change the tone and genre of the song. Though sometimes, if you aren't consistent with the type of emotion, it does kind of feel a little bipolar lol. There are so many options for each song that the studio released four different albums for the game. Green, Blue and Red, as well as the Pantheon Edition which is a nice mix of different choices.
The game definitely feels like it takes inspiration from Fables and The Wolf Among Us. It's much lighter in tone, but with the environments, the Idols hiding themselves from humanity, and the murder mystery aspect, I'd be surprised if they weren't part of the inspiration behind the game.
Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's fun, the music's good, the characters are interesting, and with the number of choices and the effects on the music, you'd be pressed to have the same playthrough twice in a row. It took me 6 hours to finish and I'm very tempted to jump back into it just to hear the other music variations.
Thanks for the review! I had a look and found it intriguing that a game would have four different soundtracks!
Maaan, I'm just really in love with games that have smooth traversal systems lately.
I kept fooling around in Spider-Man 2 because it was so fun, and I just picked up Dying Light 2 and I couldn't care less about the story missions sending me everywhere, I just wanna parkour across buildings!
Actually, about Dying Light 2, it's decent, though has some glaring issues IMO.
The story has a terrible hook. Your protagonist Aiden is looking for his sister, as they got seperated while young kids. The sister is given very little to no characterisation or any reason given as to why me, the player, should care or be interested in this, since she's only relegated to flashbacks so far and opens every flashback calling for "Aidenbobaiden" omg please stop, writers.
It sucks feeling underpowered at the start, especially missing quite a few key skills like the roll or slide. But that's just how the game works and I've just gotta play more and more to get to an experienced level.
The game focuses way way too hard on RPG elements. There are multiple different gear pieces to find, minor percentages to sift through, tons of tiny upgrades to commit to your tools, and lots of tedious loot grinding.
Also, all enemies, even the street-level zombies in this horror-centric game, has health bars if you have the full HUD turned on. What. The Heck.
Thankfully you can hide those so it's more immersive, but damn, wild choice.
The writing is also pretty meh. There's dialogue trees to handle, but it's all very repetitive and forced.
One of the first few characters tells you that you need a special Biomarker bracelet to be let into the main base. Then the next two dialogue responses will each tell you, again, even though we just established this a minute ago, that you need to find a Biomarker bracelet to be let into the main base.
But overall I'm having lots of fun with the parkour. I heard that they made it super floaty and moon-jump like at launch, but thanks to updates they added a more realistic, weighty, momentum-based option that feels a lot more similar to the first game's systems.
Actually, I saw a review by Purposeless Rabbitholes today that actually puts together a lot of the good and bad I've seen so far -- and I'm still only a few hours into the start of the game -- and it just keeps this weird lackluster quality throughout... damn!
At least the parkour and combat is fun and gets better the whole way through!
Guess what game I decided to finally give a shot.
https://ggapp.io/Aron_Blue
Autonauts vs Piratebots
Soul Calibur 6
TTWD season 1
I know I’m late but better late than never they say!
you can guess judging by my profile picture.
hint hint: I also finished that game.
I bought Ghost of Tsushima. Downloading now
That’s a great game. Enjoy!
Saints Row reboot and Forspoken are the two of the greatest games ever, but i play Might & Magic Heroes V which is like Warcraft in some ways
Happy Holidays, everyone! For the this holiday, I decided to play Alone in the Dark 2 which ironically has holiday theme to it.
It is unfortunate for me to say I didn't like this game. This game is a huge downgrade from the original and you can easily tell when you look at it. The atmosphere is too colorful, it's not scary, the puzzle are absurd and nonsensical, they didn't improve the gameplay (It plays the same as the original) and they had the audacity to include enemies with guns in this entire game. It seems like the game was either rushed or the developers just didn't understand what made the original so good. Why did they have to make this game heavily focused on combat? It's extremely clunky and you can't even tell where the armed enemies are standing because the camera won't let you see them unless you move to a different position.
The only positive that I can think of is the cutscene animation. Those were smoothly well made for a game in 1993. That's probably the only thing they improved from the original.
Overall, this game is ok in general but a terrible horror game AND a terrible addition to this franchise. I don't recommend it unless you are 100% curious about it for a game of its time. Alone in the Dark 2 is not a good example of how to create a sequel to a Survival Horror classic.
The last game I tried really playing was Autonauts vs Piratebots. Turned out it was too difficult of a game for the little one and I to grasp. Cute idea though
I finished Alone in the Dark 3 as well, in one sitting.
This one does things a little bit better than AITD2 but it still far behind from what made the original one so good and revolutionary. It lacked the horror, the story and lore got soo much weirder that I stopped caring about what's happening and the puzzle design sucked. It also still had enemies with guns but luckily, they weren't as annoying. Unfortunately, the devs didn't do anything to change the game design. It plays like the original, with a few improved controls but it brought nothing new to the table.
Overall, the first one is still the only one that I would recommend for survival horror community. I wouldn't even consider the sequels to be part of that genre. They are more like games made for kids to receive in their cereal boxes. It feels like the Iron Man movie trilogy. A great start with a terrible following. Luckily, the next game seems to be much different so I am excited to play that.
@AronDracula Did you play Nocturne before ATD ?
Bought Days Gone on the Steam sale but ended up refunding it after an hour and a half.
The cutscenes are cut together incredibly awkwardly, especially at the start. There's no sense of proper flow or cohesion. There's a scene after the prologue of Deacon, the main character, chasing a dude and after you're given control for about 10 seconds to run after him, it awkwardly fades into another cutscene where Deacon has his gun up and the dude suddenly has a hole in his chest. You don't even see the shot. Like why.
The gunplay is just straight up unsatisfying. There's no real recoil or any feeling with your impacts. I almost refunded the game after I shot the shotgun ONCE and it felt like shooting a virtual bb gun. I made a manual save and quit, went back to the game later only to find that my manual save means nothing and it just booted me back to an autosave almost half an hour before. Why even let me save manually.
Poop.
Um, no, I never heard of it.
Playing Dead by daylight : Mobile playing as Laurie Strode right now I did have fun playing as Ash Williams and the Dredge.
Currently playing the Shadow of the Colossus remaster. Never played the original game before, but had it on the back burner because it seemed like it was up my alley. Really loving it so far.
Been playing a lot of Lethal Company with friends recently. I've never played a game with as much naturally occurring comedy as this. It's nuts how intentionally and unintentionally funny this game can be.
Omg dude I would love to hook up for a game together. If you're up for it at least.
(I'm not that great and often die in unknown ways if I'm left alone!)
Oh I wouldn't mind that, though I think the time zone difference between where I'm at and Canada is like 12 hours lol.
Oh yeah you're like... New Zealand or Australia boy, huh?
Well, if you ever have a free night and I have a free morning (or vice-versa)
I'd love to attempt it at least lmao 😆
I played This Bed We Made, a noir inspired choose your own adventure type of game set in latr 1950's Montreal, Canada where you play a busybody hotel maid who discovers a sinister mystery that may put the lives of some of the hotel guests in danger. Throughout the game you'll encounter puzzles, discover a ever-growing list of evidence, and choices that will affect the guests and your fellow employees while having to juggle your actual job of cleaning up rooms.
I thought the game was great! Really fun and I found the mystery to be incredibly engaging. Cleaning up rooms and finding evidence feels very satisfying, the characters are layered and interesting, even the ones you don't meet as you form parasocial relationships with them, and deciding what to do with some of the evidence adds a surprising amount of tension. The game's not super long, about 5 hours (almost 7 if you include the time I spent trying to get the other endings) for me and there's quite a bit of hidden things that you could find if you're a completionist. My only complaints are that some of the character models, look quite outdated, the animations are pretty stiff, and some of the final outcomes are honestly quite hard to get as the specific tasks you have to do aren't super clear, which can be frustrating.
Other than that I really enjoyed playing it, especially if you're a fan of mysteries and whodunnits! I'd love to see another game of this style by the devs.
Fallout 4 and Fortnite
So, I played and finished the horror game tech demo that was announced in last State of Play, Silent Hill: The Short Message.
This game was pretty decent. It focuses very heavily on themes like suicide, bullying and depression. So if you suffer from one of these, I wouldn't recommend playing it. Short Message doesn't have much to offer gameplaywise, it's just running and exploration. Though, it does feature a challenge in which you are being chased by a creature in three different occassions.
Speaking of which, the creature has a VERY original look and it's easily the highlight of the demo for me.
It's also the fact that there is a big puzzle in which you have collect items to open a door while being chased by that creature. There is no place for you to take a break and think. That sequence did a great job at keeping me on edge.
With the story that it tells, it does a decent job at delivering the message of the themes I mentioned. The demo also uses references from the previous games, especially the first four.
The only complaint that I have is that the game is too....modernish? What I mean is that the game takes place right in the modern years. They even mentioned COVID-19. The game is not scary due to the lack of subtlety. Also, the lip-synch is fucking weird. Was the lip movement meant for the japanesse dub? Also also, because it takes place in 2020's, it doesn't really have the best dialogue.
Overall, Silent Hill: The Short Message was a surprise release but nothing to write home about. Since it's free, I'd say give it a shot. It's only 2 hours long.
Last night I started Resident Evil 3 Remake, and yeah, I can see already how it's trying to be a more, kind of linear action-horror focused entry that a lot of fans didn't like because it deviated from the original's heavy survival-horror roots (and probably also removed iconic segments) as it continued off of RE2's theme.
Like, RE2, you get a slow spooky prologue section at a gas station where you're introduced to the zombies and controls, then are essentially let loose in the RPD to find your way around -- even if many paths are blocked off for now.
But RE3 wears its action themes on its sleeve, and already feels like a much different, guided, maybe kinda product-of-a-rush game than RE2 was.
Starts off with a dream sequence, then into a scripted chase sequence with lots of small cutscene interstitials, then a scene where you learn info by following a guy and in a cutscene, until finally the game starts to open up as I'm given my first task and first save point/safe haven area.
Interested to see how this unfolds and if I'll end up liking it, since I've never played the originals so I have nothing to base any pre-conceived expectations on.
So I just 100% Jedi: Survivor last night after that freaking nightmare of a double-rancor force fracture. Seriously, that was so ridiculous I went from Jedi Master difficulty to Jedi Knight. It irritated the hell out of me.
Safe to say I loved the game. Now there were performance problems on my Series X. Crashed somewhere between 6-10 times over the game, almost always on Koboh. Sometimes lost progress. Textures would load slowly when turning fast, but...that was it. I was on Performance Mode the whole time and I am pleased with it. It is a lovely looking game. Koboh is really wonderfully imagined. I also enjoyed Jedha, though must admit it all started to blend in together. Coruscant is a great starting planet, and I like the contrasts between the Shattered Moon and Nova Garon. The saloon is really fun; I loved the collectibles and all the interesting characters you can recruit. Good conversations.
The combat is great, though I am annoyed at myself for now using some of the force powers, i.e. mind trick, as much as I could. That's one thing they could have done more on, making the player use those more often. I did cheese the super mogu fight with it at least. The enemies were generally good. They made a wise choice bringing over all the regular Imperial enemies from the last game, and the new ones they added definitely made the combat more challenging in a good way (though I hate fighting the sentry droids). It was also very smart of them to focus on making a truly distinctive second faction in the Bedlam Raiders; I really enjoyed the diversity of their troops, though the B2s and commando droids annoyed me greatly. The boss fights were good, except that fucking Spawn of Oggdo Boggdo and the rancor, which killed more than anything else in this game. I played mostly on Jedi Knight, only to turn it up towards the third act because it was feeling too easy, but still enjoyed it. The stance-breakdown of combat is a great idea; I got use out of every stances. The boss fights were good.
The Dagan Gera fights were enjoyable. The final one was really beautiful and I loved how he mirrored some of Cal's stances and I loved the final boss Bode Akuna, which I defeated in one try but ran out of stims and down to half health but loved how he started off in a blaster-stance before going into something similar to crossguard. The Vader fight was cool but irritating to be unfamiliar with all my abilities. The Rayvis fight was a great idea and quite interesting.
Now, as for the story...
They really need to redesign that databank. Into the end of the first act, I noticed that Bode Akuna had 5 entries and I only had 2 / 5, whereas other characters like ostensible main antagonist and titular character Dagan Gera had 3 and returning characters like Merrin had 4 and Cere and Cordova (a great, unexpected but welcome addition) quickly got 2 out of 3. I also realized that, after killing Rayvis and getting ready to confront Gera for the 3rd time that I was only like 65% through the chapters of the game. There was room for another Imperial enemy, so it all seemed like that Vader was going to show up. It was very suspect. Added to the fact that Bode seemed quite friendly and mentioned his daughter...based on the databank alone I predicted something was going on with him, and that kind of lends you to thinking someone becomes a bad guy and that people die. Then, that awkward conversation after you kill Dagan Gera and about him staying behind seemed mega-sus. I thought he might have gotten possessed by Gera to be honest. However, I applaud them for making a foreseeable twist depth by making him a Jedi. That was a great idea, and honestly it made a lot of sense. Fun, interesting idea that really made the theme of the game called Jedi: Survivor great. "You're not the only one who survived...". The Jedi's cannibalization of each other is a really interesting theme.
Anyway, the story is enjoyable. It has a strong start, a good second act climax and strong act. It is bloated at times, especially on Jedha even though it has some cool moments, where you have to do all this journeying. Thank goodness there's fast travel. There are funny bits and badass bits and there are sad bits. The cool Koboh stuff, these High Republic ruins, a secret planet, and a survivor from long ago...so many interesting ideas.
Although they definitely wasted the idea of a Jedi from centuries surviving into the modern day. There are so many interactions that should have been had that were not. A cool design and a great idea, so much more should have done --- and now this idea can't be used again. You only really get it in his boss fight.
They didn't want Skoova, one of the greatest Star Wars characters ever that had me laughing so hard, or Turgle, a loveable bizarrely designed character that I enjoyed greatly. An astromech droid DJ? Hilarious and musically delightful. The prehistoric American West vibe of Koboh really worked well with this band of characters. A great soundtrack backing it helped. Congrats on the Grammy win.
I just hope the 3rd game doesn't do a predictable route where Cal mentors Kata like something you see in God of War or the Last of Us. And I do hope they continue the idea of making non-Imperial enemies prominent --- the Bedlam Raiders really made for interesting fights rather than just stormtroopers.
Whoever designed those fights are fuckin' evil. Why on Earth would they give boss fights one hit kill moves.
Yeeaaahhh, I like Dagan and all but I wish he was in the game more instead of just a handful of cutscenes and the three fights. It kind of makes me wish not everything we see had to be from Cal's perspective.
I loved these fuckin' characters, they were just so silly and fun to interact with! I really hope they pop up in J3di.
I honestly don't see how it could be anything else but that lol.