Mister Jack

The Ascent This was another Game Pass game. I must admit, Game Pass is a pretty good deal, but by the time my trial month is up I'll probably have beaten all the games on there I am currently interested in playing anyway so I'll most likely cancel it until Elder Scrolls or Starfield comes out. Getting to The Ascent, I've seen some cheeky people saying that this is "Cyberpunk 2077 done right." Well these people don't know what the hell they're talking about. Not that The Ascent isn't good, it is, but Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world FPS RPG while The Ascent is an isometric twin stick shooter. The only thing they have in common is that they're both in the Cyberpunk genre, and even then The Ascent leans harder into the sci-fi because there's aliens and whatnot. It's worth playing, but don't think of it as some kind of Cyberpunk stand-in. Something very important to emphasize is that this is not a DIablo-esque dungeon crawler with constant loot drops. Enemies will sometimes drop weapons and armor, yes, but the stats on each piece are fixed like in a normal RPG. There is a decent variety of guns and you can upgrade the ones you get at a gunsmith, but every riot shotgun you find is going to be the same so the only thing dupes are good for is selling for cash. This game is a shooter first and an RPG second. That's not to say there's no build variety. Even if the guns are standardized, you can unlock cybernetic combat abilities to use in fights. You get two normal abilities and one ultimate ability, and mixing these up is where the real fun is. It takes a few hours to unlock more than just frag grenades, but once you do the combat becomes a lot more interesting. Each type of gun also comes in ballistic and energy versions, with ballistic working better on organic enemies and energy working better on robot enemies. You can equip two guns at a time so I usually used one ballistic and one energy, though depending on the kind of area you're in you'll probably be swapping them out often, which I consider a good thing. Something unusual for a twin stick shooter is that you're also encouraged to duck and shoot from behind cover when it's available. Sometimes you just gotta Leeroy Jenkins a group of enemies but if you recklessly charge into an armed mob you'll probably die pretty fast. The story is interesting and the voice acting is surprisingly good. Unfortunately, the game ends right when things start picking up. They obviously plan to continue things in a sequel or in DLC but it still kinda sucks when you're getting into the narrative and it suddenly just stops. The game is also quite beautiful for an isometric twin stick shooter and even offers ray tracing. However, I did have some severe frame drops from time to time, usually when entering a new area, and I'm on a 3060 Ti so I'm pretty sure it's not me. Apparently this is a known issue with the PC version that is supposed to get patched at some point. Some people claim to have issues with the online co-op but I can't verify that because I never played online. There's no matchmaking so if you want multiplayer you need to find some friends to invite. If you already have Game Pass I'd recommend giving this one a try. If not, I'd still recommend it, but maybe wait a bit until the next steam sale when it has hopefully gotten a few patches under its belt.

I wanted a dungeon crawler to play on my pc, preferably one that isn't developed by a company that covers up rapists, so I got this on Steam because it was on sale for a little over six bucks.

Actually I just discovered Tetris Effect is on Game Pass so I guess I can find out for myself.

Damn, you're gonna catch up to me at this rate. I'm at 412.

What exactly makes that version of Tetris worth $40? I could never really wrap my head around that.

Damn homie. What's your trophy level right now?

I agree but you know how out of touch corporations are. The fact they're choosing to release it without co-op means they thought it was a good idea, or at least better than delaying it again.

Battletoads (2020) I have Game Pass for a month so I figured I might as well try some more games while I have it. Unfortunately, the Battletoads reboot is really kind of a mess. It has no idea what it wants to be. Most of the time it's a brawler, but then oh, now it's a racer, now it's a puzzle platformer, now it's a bullet hell game, now it's a puzzle game. It can't just pick a genre and stick with it. I know the old Battletoads games mixed things up sometimes, but never this much. I honestly wouldn't even mind the constant changes so much if not for the fact that most stages are very long and the new gameplay types wear out their welcome long before they're done. The turbo bike tunnel section lasts for ten minutes! Imagine playing Warioware and each game lasted for ten minutes. It's excruciating. Frankly, the gimmick stage I ended up liking the most was one that was just a bunch of quicktime events of the toads trying to do boring office jobs. It was short, simple, and kind of amusing for the couple of minutes it lasted. The brawler stages are probably the most fun part of the game, but unfortunately even those are pretty flawed. Each toad has different strengths and weaknesses, which sounds cool on paper but Zitz ends up being objectively the best character because he's the fastest toad, meaning he has the best dodge and adds the most hits to the combo counter. The flashy, high damage finisher moves that are a Battletoads staple are rarely worth using because unlike other brawlers, there are no invincibility frames and the finisher animations are just too long to rely on without taking a hit. You're better off just using regular attacks most of the time and that's a drag. I can't say I'm a fan of some of the creative choices made either. I don't like the art style or the updated designs. The Dark Queen in particular has a misshapen mouth and freakish hands that are bigger than her head. The plot of the game also reimagines the toads as a trio of incompetent jackass losers who usually make things worse whenever they try to be heroes. I can see how this could be funny in theory but the unapologetic 90s attitude played completely straight is what I found kind of charming about the other games. Shining a spotlight on it and making them into loser dorks feels like they're explaining the joke and trying too hard to be funny. Honestly, they feel like completely different characters. The new villains are also lame. I hate to be so negative because I can tell they were trying very hard to make something cool, but it just didn't really pan out. The difficulty is more fair than the old games at least. What a lot of people don't want to admit is that the old Battletoads games could be pretty poorly designed at times and they rewarded memorization more than skill or reflexes. That's not an issue here but what you're left with still just isn't that engaging. The brawler sections can be fun, sure, but if you want a brawler you are better off just playing Streets of Rage 4, which is a much better game. I came away from this one feeling pretty disappointed. The clock says it took me only 3 hours total to beat it but it felt like much, much longer.

Something tells me they were getting antsy about delaying it for so long and are anxious to just push out what they've got before all the hype dies.

Inside out tracking is the big one for me, but only having one cable will definitely be a big deal. I sorta wish it could be a standalone unit like the Quest 2, but I'll take what I can get. I've heard rumors that Valve is looking into making one as a follow-up to the Index anyway.

Psychonauts 2 I finally took up Microsoft on that $1 month of Game Pass to play this. Before I get to the game, I just want to say the PC client for Game Pass is a piece of crap. It spent hours getting errors every time I tried to download a game and I eventually had to completely reset the app settings for gaming services and app installers on my brand new desktop for it to work, and MS didn't even suggest that solution on their own tech support. I had to go looking in forums for the answer. It's a Microsoft app on a Microsoft OS. Why do I need to jump through hoops to get it to work? Anyway, putting that aside, Psychonauts 2 was totally worth the wait. After so many years I'm sure a lot of people will be wondering if it could possibly live up to the hype and I'm here to say that yes, it does. I love the first Psychonauts but this sequel is no doubt a better game than its predecessor. The cartoony graphics look great and remind me of the puppets used by Laika, the platforming is tight, the levels are wildly imaginative and mind bending but never frustrating, the enemy designs are very clever, the writing is more mature while still being very funny, and the themes on display here are really thoughtful and heartfelt. It's just a great game that anyone who enjoyed the first Psychonauts is going to love, not to mention one of the best platformers in years. Double Fine stumbles sometimes with their games but this might be the best one they've ever made. All those years of development were not put to waste.

New cutscenes with terrible writing and voice acting and absolutely no lip movement during dialogue, worse soundtrack like you said, moving combat from 2D to 3D makes it much clunkier and harder to both aim your attacks and dodge enemy attacks, menus are worse and more cumbersome to navigate, clipping issues, performance issues, glitches...there's really just no reason to pay money for the remake over emulating the original for free.

The Secret of Mana remake is trash. Just stick with the original.

My desktop came with a wired mouse and I did try using it for a bit, but at the end of the day I just prefer wireless. The wire on the mouse wasn't really long enough for my large desk and while I could still use the wired mouse, I still had to tug it back into place more than I like. This was a relatively cheap mouse ($40) that is supposed to last for 400 hours on two AAA batteries. I really don't ask anything more from a mouse other than it for it to feel comfortable and have two side buttons so I didn't need anything fancy to drive up the price. This will suit me just fine.

So is this a Soulslike? It sure looks like it.

Pretty much, yeah. I am stuck indoors right now so I might as well.

DUSK This game kicks ass. In fact, it's my favorite shooter since Doom Eternal. There's not a lot of new mechanics or innovations to this one, but what they did was polish the FPS fundamentals to an absolute shine. The movement feels great, the levels are unique and well designed, the guns are super satisfying to use, the music is badass, and the enemies are tough but fair. Honestly, I have no real complaints here. Like I said, it doesn't bring anything new to the table, but when the formula already works this well you really don't need gimmicks just for the sake of having gimmicks. It's an absolute must-play for FPS enthusiasts.

4 dollars? Yeah, I can spare that much.

Blood: Fresh Supply Finally got around to finishing the last episode. As old school shooters go, this one isn't too bad. A solid 7/10 I'd say. The weapons are unique, there are some cool power-ups, and some of the levels are pretty memorable. The Fresh Supply version of the game also includes a made to order difficulty setting where you can adjust certain parameters, which is how I played and I would strongly suggest turning down the enemy hitscan accuracy because otherwise even the most common human enemies will be sniping you from across the map with pinpoint precision. The difficulty balance in the vanilla version is completely fucked. The weakest enemy in the game should not be more of a threat than the bosses and if you choose to play this way it's going to be a real slog. Also, one thing the custom difficulty can't fix is the fact that flying and underwater enemies are bullshit. They're ludicrously fast and hard to hit, especially when you can't look all the way up over your head. The flying enemies in particular are a pain because they'll zip over your head and then just hang there for ages, becoming completely impossible to hit until they come back down. A lot of times it will be more efficient simply to run away from them than to stay and fight. Swimming enemies are a pain mostly because the swimming controls suck. It was often a struggle just to stay underwater so I could aim at them properly. One other inherent flaw of the game is the fact that there are six different kinds of keys, and since you never know for sure how many will be in a level it's easy to get lost, especially when progressing often depends on you blowing up a wall with an explosive. I had to consult a walkthrough more than once. All these issues do drag the game down a bit. If they weren't in there I'd probably say it's an 8, but as is it's still pretty decent. You'll just have to prepare yourself for some frustration.

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth This one is a Metroidvania based on the characters of the Record of Lodoss War anime from the 90s. Naturally, you'll get more appreciation if you've seen the anime and are familiar with the characters, but even if you haven't the plot is simple enough that you'll get the gist of it by the end. While I have seen the anime, the reason I really played this is because of its striking similarities to Symphony of the Night, which is my all-time favorite game. It must be said that the graphics of this game are quite similar to Symphony's style and the sprites would look right at home on the PS1. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen another Metroidvania that replicates the style so faithfully. Even Deedlit's walk animation looks similar to Alucard's. The gameplay is pretty similar too, but with some unique twists and modern enhancements. Deedlit uses equippable weapons, armor, and magic just like Alucard, but in general her commands are easier to use than Alucard's were with his special button input combinations. Deedlit just has a dedicated magic button. Her high jump move is also easier to perform than Alucard's. Unlike Alucard, Deedlit can only take a few hits before dying, but to compensate for this you get two spirits, wind and fire, which you switch between with the press of a button. Each spirit gains power when you do attacks and when you max them out at level 3 your health will automatically regenerate. Taking a hit will level down your spirit though, kind of like the gun in Cave Story, so you will constantly be switching back and forth between the two spirits to keep them both leveled. Each spirit also gives you boosts to certain abilities depending on which one you currently have activated, and enemies will take more or less damage depending on whether you're using wind or fire. You also switch back and forth to absorb wind or fire attacks for MP kind of like Ikaruga with its white and black bullets. It's a pretty neat mechanic overall. Aside from the spirits, Deedlit's game has a lot of modern QoL improvements to the Symphony formula. There's always a partial minimap in the corner so you have some idea of where you're going without having to pause, the full map and equipment menu are on the same pause screen so you can look at both without any extra button presses, enemy HP and elemental resistances are clearly indicated in the bottom right corner, you can automatically save the game just by running past the save point rather than having to stop and do it manually, and Deedlit can attack in any of the cardinal directions, even while jumping. Am I saying these things make Deedlit the better game? No, of course not. Symphony is still longer, has more content, better music, and more weapons/abilities to play with. I am saying, however, that if Symphony had been made back in the day with these modern mechanics it would be a perfect game.

For some reason, I dunno why, I was really in the mood to play some boomer shooters so I downloaded DUSK, Dread Templar, and Blood: Fresh Supply. After playing them for a few hours I remembered why I used to love these old-school shooters so much. I have nothing against modern shooters most of the time, but the sheer speed and mobility of these games is such a blast. I love never having to think about reloading in DUSK. You just jump, strafe, and hold down the fire button until everything is dead. I also like that there doesn't seem to be any hitscan projectiles in these games, at least not that I've seen. If you are agile enough you can dodge every enemy attack, even bullets. Plus, I really like that one of your most basic, common bread and butter weapons in DUSK is dual wielded shotguns. So satisfying. Dread Templar is still in early access but it's looking pretty promising. It shares a lot of similarities with DUSK in that it's a fast-paced boomer shooter, but there are a few differences. Unlike in DUSK, you do have to reload your guns in Dread Templar, but something really cool they did to compensate is that the swords you use as your basic melee weapon can be combined together into a spear that can then be thrown at an enemy. This does huge damage, but it also leaves you without a melee weapon until the cooldown resets. It's great though because it means your swords aren't simply a last resort and you'll always be looking for a good opportunity to throw the spear during a skirmish. Blood: Fresh Supply is basically just the original MS-DOS game updated to run on modern systems with modern control and performance options. I'm enjoying it but not quite as much as the other two for the simple reason that the game is VERY stingy with ammo. I'm only four or five levels in so far but I have run out of ammo for all my guns many times already, and it's not because I'm a bad aim. This means I'm eventually forced to use the shitty pitchfork against large groups of enemies, enemies with hitscan guns. Naturally this gets me killed probably dozens of times in every level and I usually end up having to lure them around corners to stab them to death, which is more tedious than fun. I hear that this is only a problem in the early levels though, so I'm gonna stick with it and hope that it starts dropping more ammo soon.

Rocket is my favorite MCU character. This was online for 30 bucks and I couldn't resist. It's already out of stock and climbing in price on the secondhand market so I got while the getting was good.

My new desktop has pretty good wifi, but the fact it's enclosed inside the desk weakens the signal considerably, even compared to my last desktop which is over a decade old. I suspect this has something to do with the physical location of the motherboard. A direct connection to the modem just isn't an option for me. That room is too full of stuff already and I don't want to move the entire desk anyway so I got these powerline adapters instead. After plugging them in my speed jumped from around 7 MB/s to 25 MB/s. I know that doesn't sound like much but I'm stuck with Comcast so that's pretty good for my situation. More than enough for my needs, at least.

Sunset Overdrive Nice to finally play this former Xbox exclusive. It's unapologetically cheesy and videogamey and the characters will frequently break the fourth wall to comment on the fact they're inside a game, but this is a story where a defective energy drink turns people into mutants. You're really not meant to take it seriously at all and are just supposed to have a bunch of goofy fun. As expected from an Insomniac game, the weapons are a lot of fun to use, although I kinda wished that fully leveled weapons transformed into their stronger versions like in Ratchet and Clank rather than you just having to buy the better version separately, thus rendering the original weapon completely obsolete. Other than that I don't have a lot of complaints. The parkour is fun once you get used to it, there's a good variety of enemies and guns, and there's a decent amount of stuff to do in the city. Definitely worth picking up on a steam sale.