toxicitizen

The day has finally come! I was initially eyeing the Asus Strix 960, but like a week before I was ready to order I found out about the new 4GB model. That was pretty lucky timing because it would've sucked to find out about it too late. Newegg.ca didn't have the 4GB version for the Asus model, though. But I've been hearing scary things about Asus' customer service anyway, so I was already thinking of going with EVGA instead. I've had really great experiences dealing with them in the past and everyone seems to agree that their customer service is second to none. So, I feel a bit safer going with them. Also, I think I qualify for a free copy of The Witcher 3! And with that, my new build is essentially complete! There's still a few things I'd like to add here and there, like an extra stick of RAM, maybe another HDD and some better cooling wouldn't hurt either. But the core parts have all been upgraded now, so that feels pretty good. Now I'm all set for Witcher 3, Arkham Knight and The Phantom Pain!

But if you played as Sheva on a first run then you'd miss out on all the boulder punching! I think Capcom had their priorities straight here.

Resident Evil 5. Still can't see what the problem is with this one. Sure, it's not as good as RE4 but, I mean, very few games are. I still think it's a solid game and a decent RE, much more so than RE6. Although that's not really saying much, I suppose. That being said, I had forgotten just how fucking annoying Sheva is. I mean, holy shit, that stupid bitch just wastes everything. It got to the point where I never let her carry any healing items and specifically made sure to take away any weapon she had that used the same ammo as one of mine. Anyway, I think that's enough Resident Evil for me for a while. After finally playing RE6 last fall, then REHD in January and now Rev 2 and this pretty much back to back, I think I'm getting a little burned out on the series. It was fun getting back into it but I don't think I'll touch it again until the next major release. Also, it's good to finally have most of the main series on Steam properly and free of that garbage GFWL. And if the rumored RE Zero HD Remaster is real, Code Veronica X will pretty much be the last big one that's missing. I'm surprised it wasn't ported right after RE4 last year, to be honest.

It's not that the key itself isn't legitimate, it's the way it was acquired that's a little shadier. I mean, even Valve have been cracking down pretty hard on regional price exploitation lately. Pretty much everything on Steam is region locked at this point, from what I understand. I mean, buy from them all you want. I'm not trying to tell you you shouldn't. It just seems a bit risky to me, that's all. The Ubi thing was probably the largest and most public case and I'm guessing Ubi figured they've been getting enough bad press as it is lately lol. But I've often heard about people getting screwed over after buying from G2A. It's not like it happens every other week or anything but it's regularly enough that I'll never buy from them.

I meant more in the "buyer beware" sense. Like, if EA suddenly decides that your key isn't legitimate and blacklists it, you're gonna be shit outta luck. G2A are very likely going to tell you to go fuck yourself when you ask them for a refund. It's been known to happen.

Isn't G2A known to be a pretty shady key reseller? Or am I confusing them with another one?

Sega publisher week-end on Steam. I've been absolutely loving Alien: Isolation so I was really tempted to get the season pass. But I still haven't tried Survivor mode and the season pass content is mostly just maps for that. So, I think I'll hold off on that one. But, since they're not included in the season pass, I did get those two story DLCs that recreate specific moments from the movie. Should be fun. And speaking of fun, rewatching Alien and then playing Isolation has been a pretty enjoyable experience so far. So, I figured the obvious next step is to follow that by rewatching Aliens and then playing this Hopefully it'll be enjoyable in that "so bad it's good" kinda way. If not, well it was only four bucks.

Shit, they did? That sucks. I'd much rather see a second season of TWAU than a third of TWD, to be honest.

Played the second episode tonight and it's definitely still going strong. Felt a little shorter to me but that might just be because the first episode had to spend so much time introducing everything, so it started out much slower. This one had some pretty strong moments, more so than the first ep. I enjoyed the first episode a lot but it's this one that sealed the deal: I love this way more than I did any of Telltale's games so far. It's gonna be a long wait for the next episode, May seems so far away. Oh, and I'm a terrible person.

ITT: people don't understand the difference between Greenlight and Early Access. Poor Mister Jack, he made a thread about Steam Greenlight and people just keep discussing Darkest Dungeon, which isn't even on Greenlight.

Heads up: seems that the second episode dropped yesterday. Haven't heard much about it outside of NeoGAF. I've avoided most discussions about it but it seems impressions are very positive. I'll have to play it soon, maybe tonight.

Oh they're already 3 eps in? Guess it's due for a 40-50% sale then. I'll pick it up when that happens. Although, I should probably get around to playing TWD S2 first...

Wait, what?! The original AvP was meh but enjoyable enough, imho. Kinda like Mortal Kombat and the first Resident Evil movie (coincidentally, all by the same director), far from great but not offensively bad or anything. But I thought AvP: Requiem was unwatchable garbage. It bored the shit out of me so much that I actually lost track of what was going on.

Alien Resurrection is way better than Crystal Skull, though. Like, not even close. And that pack doesn't include the AvP movies now, does it.

That's not very surprising. You don't give that kinda work to your all-star team, you put the b-team on it or even outsource it. But perhaps even internally Origins is considered to be somewhat of a standalone or separate thing from the main series.

I'm guessing it's meant more as a Rocksteady Collection. They never really acknowledged Origins, going so far as to refer to Arkham Knight as the conclusion of their trilogy. Origins is in that weird spot for me where I thought it was decent but I'm mostly indifferent towards it. It didn't need to exist, and I almost kinda wish it didn't because of how it diminished my interest in the series. Kinda like Assassin's Creed Revelations.

I think it's because there's a misconception that we're getting remasters instead of new releases. I feel like most of the complaints are coming from folks who haven't the faintest clue about the industry and shouldn't even be commenting on it in the first place. Like, I've seen people on NeoGAF borderline outraged that Konami gets to "keep" Metal Gear after Kojima leaves. And seriously asking if Kojima owns the Metal Gear IP. And I'm like how in the hell do you guys not understand how this shit works?!

They're a cheap and easy way to generate revenue while they keep working on new titles, so I understand why they keep getting made. Besides, as a primarily PC gamer, they're kinda worthless to me. But I'm really not a fan of how reselling you a game has replaced backwards compatibility.

Guess what got delayed again guys! This time by an extra 3 weeks, based on the last date I posted.

So, after playing The Evil Within and the Resident Evil HD Remaster, I was a little bummed out. I enjoyed them both immensely but neither really felt very scary or tense. I just kind of figured that maybe horror games weren't as effective on me anymore. Then I started playing Alien: Isolation this week. Holy shit, this game is fucking awesome! I'm not very far into it but I'm already having a blast. I get so nervous sneaking around that when the xenomorph actually does show up, it startles the shit out of me! And it's not just the scares that are great. They really went all out in emulating the original 1979 movie's looks. I rewatched it prior to starting the game and they fucking nailed the look, the medbay in the ship you begin the game on looks almost identical to the one on the Nostromos and everything has this amazing retro futuristic style to it. It's actually kinda giving me System Shock vibes, which I am seriously digging. The music is also great at elevating the tension but it's the sound design that steals the show. I've been playing exclusively with headphones so far and I think I'm gonna have to play through the entire thing with them. And I'm not just talking about hearing the xenomorph crawling around in air vents here. When you hear the station cracking and twisting all around you, it really sells the illusion that you're in this shitty old hunk of steel out there in space. And not just that but also the beep-boops coming from computers, the crackling of electric panels, the hissing sound of doors or that creepy metallic noise the air vents make when they open. Sevastopol station just feels so alive and it makes for an amazing atmosphere.

The first step is admitting it. Now, if TV has taught me anything, the next step is for us to berate you until you break down completely and feel forced to change because of the intense peer pressure.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2. Or I guess Biohazard: Revelations 2, as my copy's main menu keeps insisting. They actually put the wrong depot up for the Steam version. It says Biohazard and everything, there's even a couple of splash screens with nothing but Japanese text on them. Seriously, how do you fuck this up? Anyway, I played the last episode tonight. Overall, it was pretty decent. It really doesn't compare to the mainline series in terms of visuals, production values and just overall quality, but for a 25$ spin-off it's not bad at all. I'm okay with a budget title for a spin-off but Resident Evil 7 proper better step things back up. Looking back, some of the episodes were kinda meh and the episodic format didn't really work. It's obvious the game was done, so releasing it weekly was completely arbitrary. The problem is that the plot is rather poorly constructed in regards to the format. So, the first couple episodes kinda felt like two hours of nothing happening and then a cliffhanger. The writing isn't all bad, though. If you're a long-time fan of the series' lore and history, there's a ton of fan service to be found. Barry in particular might as well just have cheese pouring out of his mouth whenever he opens it. "Who's the master of unlocking now?!" he exclaims after using a crane to smash through a big metal gate. You are, Barry. You most definitely are. As for the gameplay, the movement and speed felt a lot like RE6 but a little bit tighter. The combat isn't as deep as in RE6 but I didn't really mind that. RE6 got a really stupid with its combat, so I'm glad to see things scaled back a bit. No, I do not want to punch through half a dozen zombies and follow that up with a suplex drop. Also, I've seen people praising the game about the survival aspect and talking about running out of ammo, but that wasn't my experience at all. Although, to be fair, I did replay the first couple episodes a bunch of times because it had achievements tied to Playfire Rewards. So, I got a lot of practice early on and ended up with a significant reserve of ammo and supplies. But yeah, this was definitely worth my 40 bucks. Especially considering Raid mode, which could potentially keep me coming back to the game for a very long time. That being said, I'm ready for the next thing now, Capcom! Feel free to announce RE7 or that HD Remaster of RE Zero that everyone knows you're working on.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're enjoying the game that much. I'm also enjoying it a lot. It's the way you praised it that kinda made me go "u wot m8". It's good, but it's not THAT good. See, this makes a lot more sense. RE4 was crazy influential, you can still feel its impact in action games to this day. And when you describe it that way I can see why it reminded you of TLoU but I still think it's a poor comparison to make when it comes to describing Rev 2. I'd argue that TLoU was more of a survival-horror game than anything the RE series did in the past decade (REmake HD excluded, obviously).

Could've fooled me. Except that both of those games are better than Rev 2 in almost every way imaginable. And if we're going down that road, then Rev 2 isn't much in the way of survival-horror either. It's your regular modern action Resident Evil. So I'm not sure where you're getting any of that from. Also, Rev 2 has puzzles? I guess I haven't played Episode 3 yet, so maybe it starts having them in that one? Because I haven't encountered anything that would qualify so far. Not that RE5 had a ton of puzzles or anything but, off the top of my head, the laser puzzle section in the temple from RE5 is more of a puzzle than anything I've seen in Rev 2 so far. Then why even compare it to TLoU at all? I mean, I feel like the similarities you're describing are superficial at best. It's not like the two games actually have anything in common in how they play and feel. And, I mean, comparing a budget title like Rev 2 to something as critically-acclaimed as TLoU in any way just comes across as preposterous, regardless of your intention. Fair enough, but again, you might wanna be careful which comparisons you draw because it seriously colors the tone of what you're saying. I guess what I'm getting from all this is that you made a whole lot of hyperbolic comparisons without really meaning any of them?

Yeah, in my original post my issue wasn't so much with Connor himself or his attitude but rather with how the Assassins as an organization didn't really have much of a presence in the events of ACIII. Like, the Ezio trilogy feels like a golden age for the brotherhood by comparison. In AC3, Connor's enemies just happened to be Templars, there was no reason for Connor himself to be an Assassin other than it was an Assassin's Creed game. The Assassins vs Templars theme wasn't actually relevant to the plot, it was just kinda layered on top of it because it had to be.