Mister Jack

Man, who would have guessed that the Playstation would end up having the best VR experience after all?

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs This is a new movie by the Coen Brothers that's on Netflix. I usually enjoy their films so I thought I'd give it a watch, and by and large it's pretty good. This is a western anthology with six different short stories. I think they're around 25-30 minutes each. I wasn't exactly keeping time while I was watching it. The six stories are completely unconnected and don't intersect at any point. It really is just a collection of short stories, but that didn't really bother me. They're all pretty decent, but they also vary wildly in tone between black comedy and straight up tragedy. It can be a little jarring to leap back and forth between comedic violence and upsetting violence, but the fact that the stories are all kept separate helps ameliorate this somewhat. Buster Scruggs himself only shows up for the first story, but damned if he wasn't so entertaining that I missed having him around while watching the other five shorts. They're all good in their own right, though. If you like westerns and have a couple hours to kill, this is worth a watch.

They're not super long games (between 30-40 levels each) but I had time on my hands over the weekend.

Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon Beat this one 100%, which means I now have all three platinum trophies. I think this one is probably my favorite of the trilogy, though I realize this will probably be a controversial opinion. The three games are all fairly distinct from one another and strong arguments can be made for why any one of them is the best one, even the original one that only had the platforming essentials. In my case, though, Spyro 3 is the one to beat. Spyro doesn't learn any new abilities this time, but he does carry over the abilities he learned in Spyro 2. Instead, you unlock additional characters to play as, each with their own abilities and gameplay mechanics. Obviously, some people won't like this shift in gameplay, but for the most part I didn't mind it, despite not liking this same gimmick in Sly Cooper 3. It just isn't as intrusive here. Most, if not all of the side character stuff is optional unless you're going for 100%, and every character is ultimately going around grabbing collectibles like Spyro already does, just doing it in a different way. There's no stupid hacking or stealth or anything like that. The worst you'll have to deal with is shooting sections, and they're honestly not that bad, just nothing to write home about. Instead of talismans and orbs or crystal dragons this time around, the only collectible in this game besides gems is dragon eggs. That's fine with me, really. The baby dragons don't have the personality and fantastic designs of the adult dragons in the original game, but there's a lot more variety in how you get the eggs to make up for it. The level design has more variety overall as well, and I personally just felt like the worlds were better put together than the other two games. Of course, this is subjective and your mileage may vary. If I had to pick between this and the Crash remake, I think I like this one slightly more. The Crash remake is great, don't get me wrong, but it has some mild control issues that can become a problem on especially precise levels. The Crash games can also be downright sadistic at times, particularly in the first game. Crash 3 is also full of racing levels and I fucking hate racing levels. Spyro has racing levels too, but there's only a few of them and they're much less of a headache than the Crash racing levels. I still highly recommend both trilogies to anyone who likes platformers, but if someone put a gun to my head and demanded I only pick one to play, Spyro would just barely get the edge. Playing this trilogy makes me REALLY want a new Spyro game though, or maybe even a future crossover game with Crash! Activision owns both properties now. It could happen!

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage I still have a few objectives left to get 100%, but I went through to the final boss so I consider this game beaten for the moment. This is where Spyro hits his stride. There are actual characters in the game besides Spyro himself now, the villain is more memorable, and the level design is improved with a variety of objectives in each one. Rather than freeing dragons and hunting down eggs from thieves, you are now collecting talismans (primary objectives) and orbs (secondary objectives). They basically work like Mario 64's stars. The game now has actual cutscenes in between levels. It's nothing grandiose but it's a nice opportunity to enjoy the fantastic new designs and animation, plus it gives Spyro himself more character than he had in the last game. Gem hunting is less obtuse this time around too, and there aren't too many gems stuck in sadistic areas. The boss battles are thankfully more challenging now, although one of them ended up being so hard I had to consult a walkthrough. I never do that for bosses and yet I did it. Still, this is a solid improvement on the first game. I still got more stuff to unlock, and then on to Spyro 3!

Spyro the Dragon The original game is very much a product of its time, and you can tell while playing it that it was one of the first 3D platformers to ever come out, even with its new coat of paint and updated camera. That's not to say the game is bad. The controls are tight, the jumping and hit detection are mostly fine, and the difficulty is hardly unreasonable, but the original Spyro doesn't aspire to be much more than that. The levels are fairly simple in design, although sometimes the gems and dragons you need for 100% are hidden away in ridiculously obscure locations you'd never be able to reach without a guide or some serious outside-the-box thinking. The story is as basic as you can get, and the game's main villain only appears in the opening cutscene and the final boss battle, so he's barely a character at all. In fact, unlike future collectathon platformers there are no real characters to speak of like sidekicks or allies unless you count Sparx, and he's just a glorified health bar. The dragons you free will briefly speak to you after you free them, but it's mostly just to give you hints. They've all been redesigned and they look fantastic, but they sadly only get about ten seconds of screen time each. There are also only three cutscenes in the whole game: the opening, the normal ending, and the 100% ending. The game's villain doesn't even talk to Spyro a single time. Story was clearly not a priority for this game. I'm sure that at the time they made it they were just trying to see if a 3D platformer on the Playstation could work at all. Also unlike future platformers, the abilities you have at the beginning of the game are the same you'll have at the end. You can jump, charge, glide, breathe fire, and in some levels you can fly. That's your whole moveset and it never changes. It works, but never adding new moves does limit what you can do with level design. The differences between worlds are mostly aesthetic. Your goal in every level is to find the gems, the dragons, and sometimes the eggs. You never have to do anything special to earn them, like in Mario or Banjo-Kazooie. You just gotta find them and get to them. Boss battles don't have any fanfare or even a change in music. They're just plopped down in normal levels like they're ordinary enemies. I didn't even realize I had beaten the first boss until a trophy popped up informing me of the fact. The boss fights in this game are all piss easy too. I beat several of them without even getting touched. Finally, this is a short game. If you aren't going for 100% you can probably beat this game in a few hours. If you do want 100%, it might take you an extra four or five, but even then it won't require too much dedication. I got it in two days off and on. It's still a decent game, but it definitely shows its age with the gameplay. The graphics, on the other hand, look great. The characters all have cartoony, highly expressive models that would be right at home in a Spyro movie or tv show. It's extremely charming. I've heard that Spyro 2 adds a bunch of stuff to flesh out the game and give it more variety and personality, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it for myself.

I never actually got around to playing Spyro as a kid. I didn't own a PS1 until the PS2 was already a thing. I love collectathon platformers though, so I'm looking forward to this.

I haven't really been into Pokemon for years but I'll probably see this just for the spectacle of it.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Would it surprise anyone to hear that this is a great game? Yes, it does have some pretty annoying idiosyncrasies that I already laid out in the thread for the game, and these things remain persistent issues throughout the game. However, the rest of it was just so enjoyable that I could deal with it. Arthur Morgan, at least in my opinion, is the best character Rockstar has ever written, and unlike John Marston his personality is fitting for both high and low honor playthroughs. I also think this is probably Rockstar's best story yet, especially compared to the plots of GTA which I've always found kind of lacking with the exception of San Andreas. Is it game of the year? I don't know that I'd say that. It's certainly in the top five, but this has been a pretty good year for games, particularly for PS4 owners, and RDR2's flaws are pretty big ones. It's just fortunate that the good parts are so damn good.

They did that in Max Payne 3 and it bugged me there too.

Pause menu, then story @Atomsk88 You don't have to switch to your fists to talk to people. Just tap L1 to put your gun away first

Deltarune. Pic related is my biggest takeaway.

I've been playing this recently and while I'm sure I don't have to explain why it's great, there are a few major issues I have that prevent me from saying it's a 10 out of 10 game. 1) The fast travel system is probably the worst I've seen in recent memory. Not only do you have to pay hundreds of dollars to unlock it at all from your camp, but fast travel is a one way trip. To get from town to town you have to either pay a stagecoach or buy a train ticket, and this can get expensive. Even if you have the money, you can't do these things if you have an active bounty, which means either paying a ton of money to get rid of it or turning yourself in to the law and sitting your ass in jail for a while. This is assuming your crimes aren't severe enough to have you shot on sight, in which case you're just completely fucked out of using fast travel until you pay off the bounty, and good luck with that. I understand that Rockstar is very proud of the world they've created and they have every right to be, but I don't want to take the god damn scenic route every time I need to go somewhere. This is a BIG map and it can take a LONG time to get from point A to point B. I really hope the fast travel system gets an upgrade or something down the line because right now it's just awful. 2) It is waaaay too easy to get a bounty. Shooting at someone in self-defense can get you a bounty. Accidentally bumping into someone with your horse can get you a bounty. I'd say at least 90% of the things I've done to get a bounty were undeserved. Unlike wanted levels in GTA, bounties stick with you even after you die and make your life pretty difficult, so I've been trying very hard to avoid open criminal activity that will raise my bounty. Alas, a group of men tried to rob me at gunpoint in Saint Denis and when I defended myself I got slapped with a $150.00 bounty. That's a lot of money! I'm fine with bounties being a harsh punishment for criminal activity, but I wish the threshold for getting one wasn't so low. I once got a bounty just for accidentally running into a guy on the street! Everyone knows that the on-foot controls in Rockstar games are kind of clunky, so it's easy to knock people over without meaning to. Better not do that in RDR2 or your ass is in a lot of trouble. 3) The attention to detail is very impressive, but sometimes it's a little too impressive. Every single time you want to loot someone or skin an animal or pick an herb you have to watch a detailed animation of Arthur physically performing these actions. EVERY SINGLE TIME. It's not a big deal in the beginning but I fear it's going to become tedious very quickly. While I do like how the game has little touches to adhere to realism such as having you look through actual catalog books when you go to the shops, there are times when I feel like this dedication to realism is to the game's detriment. Also, they conveniently omit this dedication to realism during times when it would be convenient for you. For example, I killed a gun store owner because he was a rude little prick yet I can't steal any of those perfectly good guns he has in the display cases? Who cares if it's cheap? It would be realistic. I do appreciate all the effort they went to, but I just wish you could turn some of those animations off to save some time. I really do like this game a lot. It's easily a high 9 for me so far, but I'm not going to pretend it's perfect. These things noticeably detract from the experience for me, even if it's what Rockstar was going for. I don't want to sound like I'm shitting all over the game but I had to vent about these three things that are kind of pissing me off, especially the fast travel thing. Edit: Problem number 4) I'm still getting a bounty when I do robberies despite putting on my mask beforehand. What the fuck?

Just watched season 2 of Castlevania. Unfortunately, it's hard to talk about without spoiling it so I'll just say I liked it and it's an improvement over season one, but Trevor and Co. take a backseat for a few episodes to focus on Dracula, Hector, and Isaac, which may not please everyone.

Yakuza Kiwami Okay, let's just get this out of the way. Yes, Yakuza 0 is better. However, just because 0 is better doesn't mean Kiwami is bad, far from it. Bear in mind that Kiwami is a budget priced title that came out at only 29.99. In fact, these days it's 19.99 or less, and it's certainly worth that. I've already said how I feel about Yakuza 0's gameplay, so what changes in this one? Well, this game is smaller in scale since it's a remake of a PS2 game which means only one character, one town, fewer side activities, and a shorter story. If you were new to the series and asked me which one to start with, I'd say Yakuza 0 no question. That's not to say I didn't like Kiwami. I had a great time with it. It's just hard to deny that 0 is better in just about every way. We're talking a good game stacked against a great game. There are a few things unique to Kiwami that I liked. The story picks up where 0 left off, so if you're already invested in these characters then you'll be very interested in seeing how they change over a ten year timeskip. The self-contained plot of the game is very good too. Yes, the plot of 0 is superior, but it's almost unfair to knock Kiwami for that when Yakuza 0 has one of the best stories I've ever played. How could a remake of the first game in the series possibly live up to that? Another thing is that Kiwami uses experience points to level up your abilities instead of money. I imagine opinions on this will split, but I actually preferred it this way since you can level up without having to wait for a payday. Kiwami also gives you a rival who constantly stalks you like Team Rocket so he can fight you for his own amusement. This fucker can pop up practically anywhere and he constantly keeps you on your toes. I once had him appear behind me when I was ordering food in a restaurant, which is supposed to be a safe spot! It sounds really annoying on paper, but two things salvage this mechanic for me. Firstly, fighting this guy is how you level up your ultimate fighting style, so there is a tangible reward for dealing with him that you can't get anywhere else. Second, he is hilarious. While he's more than happy just to ambush you on the street, he'll often come up with the most ridiculous schemes to force the otherwise reluctant Kiryu into a fight. This guy goes to such extremes to get his fix that he's practically a Looney Tune. I love it, and I was always looking forward to seeing his next crazy idea. I won't be surprised if he eventually makes a dive for me in Wile E. Coyote's wingsuit from the ACME corporation. I don't know if it's just me, but this game also seemed a lot harder than 0. I don't know if they juiced up the AI or what, but enemies are a lot more adept at dodging your attacks. If anything, they're almost too good at it. It seems like every enemy that's above your basic mook is capable of dodging behind you when you throw a punch and then hitting you in the back with a combo. Bosses especially love to do this, which can get really annoying, and god help you if they have a gun. Some people will appreciate the added challenge, but your mileage may vary. I'm still glad I played it, and sooner or later I intend to play Kiwami 2.

Oh Christ, THAT guy is attached to it? This is gonna hurt real bad.

Wait, that's REAL? I thought that tweet was a joke! ?

I also saw Halloween. It was a good follow-up to the original and ditching the crappy sequels entirely was a good idea. They also retconned the whole thing where Laurie and Michael are related because reasons. This isn't a movie that's interested in exploring Michael Myers' motivation or psychology or character. He's just a killing machine and we don't need to know what makes him tick. Jamie Lee Curtis' character has evolved, however, and she steals every scene she's in. Does it surprise anyone to hear that she's the best thing about this movie? It's pretty good overall, and understands the value of setting up a tense atmosphere. Something else I also appreciate about these movies is the lack of CG. I won't swear that there's no CG at all in this film, but if there is it was brief and subtle enough to not notice, which is how CG should ideally be, especially in a horror film. There are still a couple of dumb horror tropes I hate like fake jump scares and characters who do dumb things which result in their deaths, but thankfully this is fairly uncommon. It takes a long time to build things up, but once Halloween night rolls around things get pretty good and the last half hour in particular is excellent.

https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/10/19/spider-man-ps4-puddle-stickers-controversy/ 4chan and Reddit BTFO.

Pledge of Demon

Yeah, I can agree with that. In fact, I think that scene right there is when the movie starts to get interesting.

The VVitch This is...a horror drama, I guess? The titular witch probably has less than two minutes of screen time in the entire film. The drama is mostly focused on the puritan family being bedeviled by said witch in the woods and how they become increasingly unhinged and paranoid as bad things keep happening with no rational explanation. I know this movie is critically acclaimed but it's a mixed bag for me. For starters, all the characters speak in Old English. I don't know if this is historically accurate or not, but even if it is it's very distracting and can make the movie hard to take seriously at times. Even if you're willing to look past that, the first half of the movie is straight up boring. They spend way too much time establishing the characters. It's good to set up your characters in a horror movie so they're not completely flat, but almost nothing interesting happens in the first 45 minutes. The last 45 minutes, however, are when the movie gets good and shit actually starts going down. I'm glad I hung in there for the second half, but I was tempted to turn it off more than once during the first half.

Yakuza 0 (for real this time) This was my first Yakuza game and I can see why people are so into the series. I expected another GTA clone like Sleeping Dogs but it really isn't like that at all. This is more like taking the classic beat-em-up genre and updating it with things like RPG mechanics and a TON of minigames and side content to give it more value to modern gamers. I wouldn't really call it an open-world game. You're free to run about the streets as you wish, but the map is closer to the size of a neighborhood than a whole city, so there's no driving involved whatsoever. The only time you ever operate a vehicle is when you pick up a motorcycle to bash over some poor bastard's face. I actually like this because a smaller map means the content is more densely packed. Pretty much every street has several things to do on it and you never have to go too far to get to it. Since you're getting everywhere on foot, you also frequently get into street fights with punks or yakuza. I wouldn't call these random encounters since the game warns you in advance when hostiles are around and you can run away from them if you've got the stamina for it. The story of this game is amazing. Honestly, I got way more sucked into this plot than the plot for any GTA game I ever played. The only Rockstar game that can hold a candle to this one in terms of story might be Red Dead Redemption. There's way more involved here than just going to some guy at a marker and doing missions for him until he sends you to the next guy. Because of this, the cutscenes can get pretty long, which some people might not like, but I was just too invested to care. I liked the story so much that I think I might start watching actual Yakuza films now. Combat is decent. It's not quite as nuanced as something like Devil May Cry or God of War, but there are three martial arts style for both characters that you can switch between on the fly which excel in different circumstances. You essentially have fast but weak, well rounded, and powerful but slow attacks to choose from. Combos aren't super complex, but you'll still be doing more than bashing square for the whole game. The side content blows GTA's side content out of the water. You still have a few standard open-world type minigames like karaoke, arcade games, and bowling (although this is also my new favorite bowling minigame) but there's unique stuff too. In addition to a bunch of really charming and sometimes hilarious side stories, you can also manage your own real estate and club businesses. In fact, the game pretty much expects you to do this because late game upgrades can cost up to 100,000,000 yen and there's no way you're getting that just by fighting thugs on the street. However, if you invest wisely in your properties and smartly manage your clubs, you'll end up with so much cash you don't even know what to do with it. It's a great feeling, and the business content even has its own subplot involving a turf war against a local syndicate. So basically, I loved this game and I'm glad I gave it a chance. I'm definitely going to be looking into Yakuza Kiwami and even Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, which was made in this style.

The anime for Goblin Slayer just premiered. Obviously it's toned down a little from the gore and nudity filled manga, but so far it seems like a decent adaptation, at least in the first episode. A couple of bits from the manga chapter were cut, but these were unimportant flashback scenes so I honestly don't miss them.