Mister Jack

Taking a break from Baldur's Gate for a bit to play Lies of P and ho-lee fuck this is hands down the hardest soulsborne game I have ever played and it isn't even close. You thought Sekiro was hard? You thought Bloodborne was hard? Imagine a game where every single boss is like fighting the hardest boss of a typical From game. I'm seeing From veterans getting filtered by the second boss of the game, and even the minibosses scattered around the levels frequently kick my ass. Hell, I am getting killed by normal enemies way more than I ever do in any From game. It's because the primary defense mechanic of this game is parrying, which is not only much less forgiving than Sekiro but enemies are also way more aggressive and prone to doing fast combos on you, with every hit needing to be parried with perfect timing. You'd have to be a masochistic lunatic to subject yourself to this kind of punishment. Anyway I'm on chapter 6 now so I'll probably finish it in the next few days.

Got the true ending for Armored Core VI, which requires beating NG++. This game handles NG+ cycles in a way I haven't seen before. As far as I can tell, the enemies do not get buffed at all like in other From games. Rather, during mission replays you will sometimes have new branching paths come up when you least expect it that completely change the story, and taking these new paths opens up new, much tougher missions and boss fights that would be nearly impossible on a NG run. Despite this, I still found the NG++ cycle to be the easiest one simply because by the time I got to it I had unlocked so many powerful parts that there was very little the game could throw at me that I wasn't able to handle. It was pretty satisfying to see the game desperately throw everything it had at me only to get steamrolled anyway because I had put together a monstrously lethal death machine after many hours of work. Also I painted it like a Nerf gun.

First time I've ever heard someone complain that open world games aren't empty enough.

I've been using a DS4 with my PC but the bluetooth drops out a fair bit and fucks up my game in the middle of a session. This uses a 2.4 dongle instead so I'm hoping that will improve performance.

Baldur's Gate 3. I'm having some crashing issues with the PC version that need to get sorted out, but when it works it's fantastic. It's like a next-gen, turn-based, more polished version of the original Dragon Age, but with even more freedom. Battles and skill checks are based on dice rolls, seeing that this is a D&D game and all, and a lot of times if you so choose you can find nonviolent solutions to conflict if your charisma is high enough. Actual battles can be pretty tough, and on the surface the odds can seem impossible sometimes, but with some smart thinking you can overcome battles that are stacked against you. I'll give an example. I fought a giant spider boss who would spend her turns summoning five more spiders to come and attack me, so trying to fight her head on would be insane. However, whenever she perched on one of the bridges made of spider webbing I would set the web on fire and cause her to drop down and take massive fall damage. By getting rid of the bridge I also forced the backup spiders to waste a turn teleporting across the gap to get to me, where they became easy pickings for my party. It feels deeply satisfying when you manage to win by thinking outside the box like that. You can do things like shove enemies off of cliffs, dip your weapons into nearby poison or fire, cut or shoot down hanging braziers to start fires, throw flammable chemicals at torches or campfires, electrocute water sources, and turn nearby wild animals against your enemies. As far as I can tell, it is also possible to kill every NPC you run into if you feel like being an evil bastard. At least, I haven't run into anyone yet where it did not at least give me the option. Oh, and if you play this game do yourself a favor and make sure you have someone in your party who can talk to animals because it is highly amusing, not to mention useful.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Technically you're supposed to play through this game three times to see everything, but I still played enough to see the first ending which I think is enough to say I beat it. This is my first AC game so I have no idea how it compares to the rest of the series. I'm going into this franchise completely fresh, so what did I think about this one? I liked it quite a bit, except for when I hated it. I'll explain. Usually I don't gel with mech games because they're either too fast and just feel like people with robot skins or they're too slow and everything feels like a slog. This game finds the perfect middle ground where you have a decent amount of agility and maneuverability, but you're not so agile that you no longer feel like you're controlling a robot. Using your boosters to fly and dodge enemy fire always feels good, and while the controls take a little getting used to, once you get the hang of it piloting your core feels like second nature. The biggest draw of the game is customizing your bot both mechanically and cosmetically, and there were several encounters where I needed to change parts and approach the situation with a different build. It feels rewarding when you figure out just the right setup to plow through whatever obstacle is in front of you. I do still have two major complaints. First off, the camera can be really disorienting if you're locked on to an enemy that's right up in your face. If it's a particularly fast enemy, there will be moments where you have no idea what's going on because of all the lasers and explosions blocking your field of view while the targeting system is jerking all over the place. It's not a constant issue, but it does crop up enough for me to feel the need to mention it. My second gripe, and the one I suspect will turn off some people, is the seriously uneven difficulty. Most of the missions in the game are fairly easy and probably anyone could clear them. However, there are a small handful of boss fights, including the very first one in the game, where the difficulty dramatically spikes up to insane levels. Not every boss is like this, mind you. I can think of maybe four or five total in my playthrough that gave me serious hell, but these spikes happen so suddenly and are usually sandwiched in between much easier bosses and missions, so it feels jarring. Some of the bosses just straight up break the rules of the game and it becomes extremely tempting to use overpowered builds just to get them out of the way. Until it gets nerfed you're bound to see a lot of people dual wielding shotguns because they just do so much stagger damage. I wouldn't say using said builds ever feels required, but it does feel like you're gimping yourself if you don't in these instances. The game could use a little rebalancing and a couple of bosses definitely need to be nerfed, but other than that I had a lot of fun building and trying out all kinds of different robots, and the constant unlocking of new parts in the shop ensure you'll always have new toys to play with. If you have the determination to brute force your way through the roadblocks the game throws at you, it's a pretty cool time. I didn't try the PVP mode but I highly suspect it's full of shotgun users right now.

"Would I ever lie to you, my son?"

You could always just get a month of Game Pass.

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition I bought this game dirt cheap to basically test out the series before taking the plunge on Baldur's Gate III. I know that it came out in 1998 so I wasn't expecting to know exactly what 3 will be like, but I had no idea what kind of game Baldur's Gate even was so I wanted to acquaint myself with the formula. As far as this particular entry goes, I...kind of liked it? I know it was made a long time ago, and there are good ideas in there, but boy this game did not really age all that well. Encounters often come down to trial and error or just plain luck, and I'm not kidding when I said I probably pushed the quick save and quick load buttons over a thousand times by the time I was done. You just have to save CONSTANTLY or risk losing precious progress in every single fight. I'm not against challenging mobs, but the game really feels stacked against you like it wants you to save scum. I cannot imagine trying to get through this without scumming, and that really kind of sucks. The pathfinding on your party members is also atrocious. Navigating six people through a narrow corridor is often pretty frustrating, let alone trying to fight in said corridors. Good luck using spells indoors when they have friendly fire and your people are all crammed together shoulder to shoulder. Ultimately my primary tactic was to have my archer go forward on his own, pelt an enemy with an arrow, then run away until they de-aggroed. Rinse and repeat until dead. Did it work? Usually, yeah, but I didn't like the fact it was my best option. I don't like D&D 2nd edition rules either, which this game utilizes. It's archaic, confusing, and frustrating. Most of these gripes are things I assume have been ironed out by the time the third entry was made. I like the general idea behind the series, where positioning of your party members in combat is important and battles need to be carefully planned out because every enemy is a legitimate threat. Despite how clunky this game felt (I'm sure it was great in 1998) there is a foundation of good ideas there that just needed more time and more polish to realize the franchise's potential. From what I'm hearing, that's what has happened now with Baldur's Gate 3.

I know, right? I originally played Saints and Sinners on PSVR and I liked it there too but some of the guns like the sniper rifle and especially the lever action were literally impossible for me to use reliably with the PS Move but when I replayed it on the Quest they became my favorite guns. So much fun when the tracking actually works.

I'm recovering from surgery right now and can do pretty much nothing but lie down all day so I've gotten back into Pokemon Unite on my phone/Switch, which is honestly a godsend right now. It turns out I picked a good time to pick it up because there's an anniversary event going on to get Mewtwo for free, plus I finally got that Pirate Cinderace costume I wanted through a daily prize drawing. Being laid up sucks, but sometimes it's the little things that keep you going.

Game quality notwithstanding, how are you liking the actual experience of using the Quest vs the PSVR?

Everyone is sucking off Baldur's Gate III right now, but I don't want to drop full price on it before I even know if it's the kind of game that will appeal to me. Got this for less than 4 bucks on CD Keys.

You have to install Oculus ADB drivers, make an Oculus developer account so you can access developer features, and then use one of the sideloading programs available online.

I honestly love my Quest 2. I jailbroke mine but even if you don't there's a ton of games for it and you can also play Alyx if your PC is up to snuff. Meta also started doing a subscription service kinda like PS+ where you can pay 7.99 a month and get two games every month that would normally cost much more than that. You picked a good time to get one.

Diablo IV has its issues, but one thing I like a lot is that unique side quest items will drop from enemies even if you haven't picked up the side quest yet. Your character won't know what it is, but when you run into the NPC who wants it you can just go "Oh hey it just so happens I already have one of those." It's a great little time saver.

Diablo IV This entry tried some new things for the series, some good and some bad. How you feel about the changes will probably depend on how much of a purist you are, but here's where I stand on this game: The Good - The campaign is better than III's campaign. It's not amazing or anything but it is more interesting, and Lilith is a pretty good villain. - The overworld is huge and absolutely stuffed with dungeons, random world events, and side content. You can spend a time of time here without even touching the main story. - Respeccing is relatively painless. Just pay some gold for each point you want back. The cost goes up as you level up more, but so far it hasn't been anything I can't manage. - You can see other players running around on the map and can party up with them in just a couple of button presses if you want. Assuming they accept your invite, of course. - Mounts are now a thing. You can't fight from them, but they help you move around the map faster. You can't use them inside of dungeons, but you can use them in towns and on the overworld. They also help you run through unwanted fights, although if you get too overwhelmed the horse will get scared and throw you off. The Bad - Always online. This sucks. While I understand that certain features like the world events and the timed bounties necessitate a persistent connection, there should at least be an option for a scaled down offline mode with fewer features. It'd be better than nothing. - Level scaling. Some people like it, but I'm not a fan. When the enemies are always the same level as you it barely feels like you're getting stronger. This was patched recently so enemies never scale over level 95, but that really only matters after you've been playing for hundreds of hours. - Some skills are just flat out better than others, build be damned. I played a druid and the poison creep summon was so much better than the wolves and the ravens that the latter two weren't even worth considering. We're talking a massive AOE summon that poisons huge groups of enemies and does lots of damage versus a couple of pets that bite someone every few seconds. The Ugly - The game recently got a patch that buffed enemies and nerfed players by a lot without really giving us anything to make up for the nerfs. As a result the game now feels a good bit harder than it did before, and not in a good way. This actually pissed people off so much that Blizzard had to come out and promise never to do a patch like this again, but quite frankly Blizzard's word isn't worth shit to me. I mostly enjoyed the game and I do intend to keep playing and go for the platinum (getting a hardcore character to 50 is going to be a bitch). However, if you're wondering whether or not to get into it my advice would be to give them a while to iron out the kinks and see where the game lands by the time they announce the inevitable expansion.

Got Diablo on eBay because I need something that will last me for a while.

Got the Final Fantasy XVI platinum. It's not too grindy or difficult. The hardest trophy is finishing the game on hard mode, which requires a second playthrough, but if you're any good at character action games then it's perfectly doable.

I had a store coupon.