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Played the demo, got really into it, went to CDkeys and got the full game for over half off. I love CDkeys so much.

It was kind of an impulse purchase. I'd typically want to catch up first but I'm also way more interested in this one than the others. Since it sounds like the modern day narrative is very minimal in this one (and from what I understand, not even included in the actual game), I figured I'm safe to just play this one now and go back to the others later.

And a few more... I would have bought Syndicate too but for some reason that one's not on sale.

Ubisoft are having a going out of business publisher sale on Steam. Some really good deals. I honestly can't remember the last time I've seen so many games 90% off. Anyway, grabbed a few dirt cheap ones. Steep and Immortals just got Steam achievements this week, too. After years of them treating Steam as if it was beneath them, I'd be lying if I said it's not satisfying to see them come crawling back like this lol.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Finished it about a week ago. Overall, my thoughts are basically the same as with Remake. It's very good and I thoroughly enjoyed every second I spent with it, however it feels like a bloated mess. Rebirth in particular feels like it doesn't really have a plot of its own. You've got the party deciding to chase after Sephiroth at the end of Remake and in this one they mostly just do that. Like, I would struggle to explain the plot of just Rebirth to someone that hasn't played the original or even just Remake. It doesn't really stand on its own in any way. Almost like the story of FFVII doesn't really suit itself to being expanded to a full trilogy! Like, don't get me wrong, a ton of stuff happens throughout the game but none of it really drives any kind of overall narrative forward. Then again, who is going to play this without being already super invested in FFVII? So it's probably not that big of a deal. And I don't want to sound overly negative, either. After all, this is a game that took me 120 hours to get through without ever overstaying its welcome. I completed all the side-content I could find in every single region before moving on and I never got sick of it. The first couple weeks, I couldn't wait to finish work so that I could fire up the game and lose myself in it until it was time for bed. It's been a while since a game took over my life like this. I think the last one would have been Witcher 3 when I finally got around to it a few years ago. The only time the game lost any kind of Steam was when I got to one of the last chapters and unlocked a bunch of end-game side-quests. I gave them a shot but most of them were such an insane difficulty spike that I figured they were meant for post-game/hard mode. So after taking a few days off out of frustrating, I just moved on with the main story and finished the game because I only had a week left until Monster Hunter Wilds. I think I'll have to replay the original before part 3 because I'm kinda baffled that two games into this trilogy we're still only at the end of disc 1. Maybe less happens in discs 2w and 3 than I remember? I thought disc 1 ended when you left Midgar until I looked it up, so it's not like I have super clear memories of the original. Either that or part 3 is going to be absolutely massive. And I'm having a hard time picturing how they could possibly top Rebirth in that regard. Monster Hunter Wilds I mean, technically I did roll credits on the main story but unlike Monster Hunter World, the story in Wilds only covers Low Rank. So basically I only finished the tutorial and the real game begins now. And thank god because while I can appreciate what they were going for, some aspects of the story mode were kind of a misfire. What made me fall in love with World was the gameplay loop: going into a zone, tracking the monster, finding it and getting into a long fight to finally take it down. But the story mode in Wilds kinda throws all of that out the window. All of those elements are still there but when doing main story quests, you constantly get stuck into "slow walking" sections where you mount auto-rides you to the next objective while characters talk. It got old pretty fast. And after a while it got kinda comical how you kept randomly running into monsters on your way to various places. Like, most of the main story quests go down like this : get sent to investigate location XYZ -> ride 2 mins to get there -> oh no big monster in the way! -> kill it -> teleport back to camp -> mission accomplished! Some of the set pieces are really cool and there's some pretty awesome cutscenes in there but I feel like there's some improvements to be made in how they tackle story in future Monster Hunter games. Meanwhile, in High Rank/post-game, my current main objective is : "investigate stuff and level up your hunter rank" and this is the most excited I've been to play since the game came out. Especially since most of the low rank monsters were complete pushovers. Like, at one point you fight a monster that's obviously a pretty big deal and very important story-wise. But I only figured out that it was actually the final boss when it turned out to take much longer to kill than everything else up to that point. And sure enough, credits rolled after that fight. But calling HR the post-game isn't really accurate. I beat the story mode but I haven't beaten the game. Like, obviously most of HR is going to be stronger versions of monsters you've already fought but the very first one you fight is actually brand new at that point. So the game definitely still has a few surprises in store and there's still some story content here and there, it's just less of a focus. But I can already tell that going forward it's going to be closer to the World gameplay loop I loved so much. And the additional freedom given to you in HR means that the seamless world gets to shine even more. Like, the biggest selling point of the game is that the various zones are now all connected into one seamless world (although it is not an open-world game by any stretch of the imagination) but the story mode just kinda railroads you through it without letting you explore much. I really don't get what they were thinking lol. So yeah, the game itself is pretty great but the story campaign is more uneven. If you're considering this as your first MonHun game, you might be better off grabbing World or Rise for cheaper to get a better sense of the core gameplay loop. Especially if you're on PC since that version of Wilds kinda runs like ass. Although weirdly enough, that hasn't been a problem for me ever since I switched from DLSS to FSR3. I even get to turn on frame gen. It's baffling to me that I get better results with AMD tech on my Nvidia card but it made the game go from sub-60fps to ~100fps. There's some visible ghosting at times but I'll gladly take that in exchange for a smoother experience.

Def Jam Vendetta For the longest time, I was sure this was the sequel to Fight for New York, turns out it's the other way around. One of the most frustrating fighting games I've played, mostly due to how hard it is to actually end a fight, you can't just beat the crap out of your opponent you need to win through pin, submission or knockout, but pin and submission rarely work, and knockouts only work under special circumstances, combine this with an awkward control scheme and the result is an annoying nightmare. Not something I would recommend. I have fond memories of Fight for New York, so now I'm curious as to how that one has aged. Grade: D-

I also just bought Immortals Fenyx Rising.

I really enjoyed the first game when they remastered it and I was pretty bummed out that they never did the sequels, so I'm there day one for this. Hopefully this time they'll keep going and do Demon Siege and Dawn of Dreams as well.