toxicitizen

Pre-ordered this today. I'm not even sure what prompted it. Total impulse purchase. I mean, I was obviously gonna play it day one. So I had to pre-order it at some point, I guess. I just couldn't tell you why today was the day.

There's a pretty decent deal on GMG. I was hoping for a shadowdrop at the Game Awards like last time but at least it's not too far off. I'm really glad they didn't make us wait stupidly long for the PC version again. They really need to get their shit together and start getting these ports out at the same time as the console versions. But at least a little under a year is a huge improvement over the two years it took for Remake to come to Steam. Hopefully part 3 will be multiplat at launch.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle So, that one kinda came out of nowhere for me. I had been following it and was hoping it wouldn't suck but that was about it. Well, turns out this might actually be my favorite game of the year. I knew I was in for something special when one of the early levels basically played like it was a new Thief game. And then I got to the first major area and suddenly it turns into even more of an immersive sim? Christmas came early this year! Seriously, if you love immersive sims and were as crushed by the closure of Arkane Austin as I was, then do yourself a favor and don't skip this game. It's not a full immersive sim in the vein of Deus Ex but there was just enough of that DNA in there that I couldn't get enough of it. I can't remember the last time I went out of my way to get all the collectibles in a game before even finishing the main campaign just because I wanted to stretch the experience as much as possible. I could tell I was getting close to the end and I wasn't ready for it to be over. And if you're a fan of Indiana Jones, then it's the best Indy story since Last Crusade and it's not even close. This feels like a true Indy adventure in a way that Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny simply didn't. I finally got around to watching the latter last week-end and it's just not the same. It was alright for a final send-off for the character but it's pretty clear that Harrison Ford is way too old to keep making these. Most of the action is just chase scenes, I'm assuming because having a man in his 80s doing more elaborate stunts would be fucking irresponsible, and they got kinda boring after a while. My one complaint is that the game is kinda stupid with its checkpoints. It doesn't save after you pick up a collectible, so it's possible to spend like 10mins exploring and picking a bunch of stuff up only to die and lose all of it because you didn't hit a checkpoint. There were a few times when I was going back through areas to get whatever I had missed and found stuff I had already picked up hours earlier but lost because of this bullshit. So if you die, you need to remember to grab stuff again otherwise you'll need to come back for it later. I hope they'll fix this in a patch because it was kind of annoying. Especially when you missed stuff in isolated areas like tombs and caves because getting back there can be tedious. That was my only issue with the game, though. Overall, I absolutely loved it! MachineGames was not the studio I would've bet on to pick up the immersive sim mantle but this was a very pleasant surprise. I really hope they'll make a sequel to this because I'm definitely down for more.

So are my first impressions. So far it seems a bit immersive sim-ish. One of the early missions basically plays like a new Thief game. I love it! Also, I usually can't stand Troy Baker but I have to admit he's actually doing a pretty good Harrison Ford impression here. I can't recognize his voice at all.

I'm an idiot with no self-control so I didn't wait for reviews. Gonna pre-load overnight and should be able to play the early access tomorrow night. Please be as good as the original trilogy...

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake I also finished this tonight. Dragon Quest is such a comfy series, it's always a treat to return to it. I never played the original but this felt like a perfect middle-ground between playing a retro JRPG and a modern one. Overall, I thought this one was fantastic although there were a few parts that tried my patience a little. Especially near the end when I had to grind a little bit to beat some of the bosses. Also, playing this one before Dragon Quest I & II means the impact of the big twist is significantly reduced. I knew all about it and yet when it happened I didn't immediately recognize its significance until about an hour or two later when I went "oh wait..." Apparently they're reworking I & II a bit so that there'll be a few new surprises that come from playing the games in chronological order. It was also my first HD-2D game and I realize I'm years late on this one but I'm really sold on the style. The low camera angle and the bokeh DoF end up creating a really cool visual style. And, like Cowboy said, the lighting at night is definitely a mood. I often found myself purposefully waiting until night to enter some areas just to enjoy the vibes while going through them. It's downright criminal that Dragon Quest VIII still hasn't had some kind of rerelease on modern platforms. The PS2 version stills looks fantastic when rendered at high resolution with an emulator. It would be the easiest remaster job ever. And it's also baffling that S-E never bothered to drop the mobile versions of DQ I through VI on Steam.

Even though I've been anticipating this one since it was announced, it was a bit of an impulse purchase. I've only just gotten started with Ys X but last night I said fuck it, bought this and played for a couple hours before heading to bed. Dragon Quest isn't a series that I have a ton of nostalgia for since I never played them as a kid but there's still something super comfy about the series that always makes it a treat to return to. Especially with the HD-2D visuals in this one. I'm really looking forward to putting some more time into it.

There's also this really important scene you can get if you backtrack all the way to the beginning.

Metaphor: ReFantazio I suppose there's some irony in finishing the game this week in particular. Having the selection of a leader end well is a nice escape from reality right now... Overall, this is a pretty solid offering from Atlus. While it is basically Fantasy Persona (to a shocking degree, honestly), I found that its main differences from Persona were its biggest strengths. The story doesn't quite reaches the same heights as P5R but the press-turn combat system and the Archetypes job system both felt like a huge improvement over the more repetitive and limited One More combat from Persona. Press-turn felt way more strategic to me. If you play your cards right, you can dispatch enemies without taking any damage and get a boost to your combat rewards. If you don't, an encounter that could've been trivial can end up kicking your ass. The way archetypes work together also adds another neat strategic layer. It clicked for me early on in the first real dungeon. I unlocked a new archetype and equipped it on a character immediately. Then I proceeded to get my ass kicked the very next fight. I thought about it for a bit and considered how my current archetypes could work together and came up with a strategy that carried me through the rest of the dungeon. That was way more satisfying than I ever found the combat in Persona to be. Being able to use every archetype with any character is also great. Need a second healer? Just level up the Healer tree on any character you like. Want that character to still keep its original role? No problem, switch back and use skill inheritance to re-equip the healing spells you want. It's a level of freedom and customization that just isn't present in Persona/Demon fusion. I know I always end up feeling like I have to compromise and lose useful abilities. Here, though, you can build your party members pretty much exactly how you want them. It's great! So yeah, while the game feels very similar to Persona in terms of structure, the combat is the one thing I felt was an upgrade. The story, not so much. it's fine, really, and there's a few cool twists along the way but ultimately it felt pretty basic. It's the one aspect of the game that made me feel like it could benefit from a Royal-style rerelease with added content. Oh and the game is way less strict than Persona as far as time management goes. I didn't quite manage to do everything because I'm dumb and suck at time management but the last month gives you enough free time that I still managed to complete all the requests and max out all the followers' ranks. And that's despite me wasting a bunch of days traveling to places I wasn't ready to tackle on more than one occasion... If you plan things out a little better, there's a ton of breathing room here. So yeah, overall this was pretty damn good. The fantasy setting was a nice change from the usual Atlus fare although I wouldn't necessarily say i preferred it. It was just a nice change of pace. But now that this and P3R are out of the way, I really need you to reveal Persona 6 already, Atlus! And don't you fucking dare go back to launching as a timed PlayStation exclusive, I swear to God...

Any new Falcom game is a day one purchase and man, it's about time RDR 1 was available on PC. The price is higher than I would normally like for a remaster but this is a game I don't mind paying nearly full price for.

Didn't think to post it at the time but a friend gifted it to me on Steam for my birthday a couple weeks ago. Looking forward to blasting some heretics! I even reinstalled the first game to replay it first. Just not sure when I'll get to it yet. I'm still not done with Metaphor and Ys X comes out on friday, so that's probably my next game.

TEW 2 is weird because it's objectively a worse horror game but the gameplay loop is so much more engaging that I enjoyed actually playing it way more. I would play Evil Within in short bursts whereas I'd play Evil Within 2 for far longer sessions because there was always something else I wanted to explore nearby or another upgrade I was close to getting. And now I'm mad all over again about Tango getting shutdown while they were working on anniversary content for the series...

Silent Hill 2 Remake I never played the original, so I went into this one completely blind. Well, almost completely. I had the big thing spoiled years ago but knew nothing about the game beyond that. Well, holy fuck, this game is incredible! It might actually be the scariest game I've ever played. This isn't Resident Evil fun time. The atmosphere in this game is so goddamned oppressive and tense that I couldn't take it for more than a couple hours at a time. Which is quite a feat for a game with only about half a dozen enemy types that aren't particularly difficult to deal with. The sound design and soundtrack in particular are god-tier. I was constantly dreading what would be around the next corner. I obviously can't compare it to the original but I have to assume it's up there with RE2 and RE4 as one of the best video game remakes ever. It modernizes the original game and expands on it where it makes sense to but also preserves what made it work in the first place. The voice acting still feel off and adds this eerie vibe to all the cutscenes. The combat works really well without making James feel like John Wick. The puzzles weren't particularly difficult but they were satisfying enough to solve and didn't involve bullshit leaps of logic. The original is one of those games that I had been meaning to play for years but never got around to. And now I'm kinda glad I never did because this was a hell of a way to experience it for the first time. I remember playing the first game on my PS3 years ago and it just didn't compare to this. I know there are some brand new games in development but I really hope Konami aren't done with the older ones. I'd love to see remakes of the first game, at least. Ideally, SH3 and 4 as well. Or at least some kind of proper collection like they did with Metal Gear Solid. So yeah, if you're in the mood for a spooky October game, this is the one to get.

Ubisoft finally got their head out of their ass and added Steam achievements to AC Valhalla. So, since the entire series is currently on sale, I decided AC is back on the menu. I liked AC Origins enough despite how bloated it was, so I'm down for more. The Viking setting of Valhalla in particular really appeals to me. Gotta play Odyssey first, though, and after playing through GoW Ragnarok and the Valhalla DLC, I'm kind of in the mood for some more Greek and Norse mythology nonsense in the near future. But for now, I reinstalled Origins to do some achievement hunting to kill time while I wait for my Metaphor CE to get here. I have to admit, I'm starting to realize I kinda missed the series. It's easy to ignore Ubisoft games in general when you've got limited free time because of how cookie-cutter and bloated they've become but I was super into Assassin's Creed back in the day.

The two DLCs I mentioned have some fairly important story stuff in it. I would definitely recommend playing them before TEW 2.