toxicitizen

Yeah, that's why I said it's only skipping Steam for now. There's no way this is a permanent exclusive. Yep, this is what makes the timing of this hilarious. Announcing an exclusive the same day they essentially announce the death of the platform.

Yeah, there's also the lack of enemy variety. You can only be scared by black goop monsters so many times. I think the scare factor of the game peaks once you go down to the basement of the main house. After you leave, it's your typical actiony modern RE. That's why I'm so excited that RE Village is clearly drawing from RE4. RE4 stuck a pretty good balance with giving you over the top firepower but still keeping you on your toes and having some tense moments even in the late game. I really hope Village does the same.

Cyberpunk 2077 Finished it yesterday but I still had one ending left, which I did today. Overall, it's undeniable that the game has failed to live up to expectations. Even on PC where it was in a much better state, it still fell short in many ways. That being said, I still had a hell of a good time with it. It didn't consume my entire existence like Witcher 3 did but I still played it for over 100 hours spread out over almost 2 months and it never overstayed its welcome. I'm honestly looking forward to giving it another go as female V in the future and hopefully by then most of the (patchable) issues will have been ironed out. Some issues simply aren't patchable, though. The main quest has a strong start but a weak finish. That final mission, whichever path you choose, is super underwhelming. Only one of the missions feels like a proper climax to the story (the Johnny one) but then the epilogue can leave things on a weird note depending on a choice you have to make. The one that's arguably the happiest ending feels disconnected from the rest of the main quest and the one that the main quest has actually been building towards the entire game is just... well, not gonna spoil it but lol. It really makes me wonder what they're planning for the expansion DLC because some of these feel like they're basically setting things up for that. Although it would be kinda weird to release a DLC that's like "Oh yeah if you didn't choose this ending fuck you lol". I mean, it's easy to just reload and do the right one but still. As with Witcher 3, the side-quests steal the show. Kinda. Some of them have meaty questlines and are super interesting. The Peralez one might be my favorite one out of the entire game and it actually leaves things up in the air so I REALLY hope one of the big DLC is going to follow up on it. The Panam/Aldecado questline is fairly lengthy and has some strong moments, but ends on a bit of an anticlimax (especially if you don't go with the ending path it opens up). The Judy questline is also really solid but the Kerry one is more like a funny diversion and I have to assume the River one had major cut content because it's literally just one mission. It's a really good one but man, that felt like it could've been so much more. ? Other than that, the one aspect of the game that didn't disappoint is the open world. The way gigs (basically really short missions) are seamlessly integrated into it is just fantastic. You're walking around and get a call from a fixer that somewhere nearby there's XYZ that needs to get killed/stolen/destroyed. So you head there and sneak in real quick, get that shit done, and get the hell out. They're really straightforward but that gameplay loop alone could've kept me going for another hundred hours. The actual main quest missions had some really good sections for the stealth fan in me but those gigs were just crack delivered in short and sweet bursts. I really hope the free DLC will add more of these cause I couldn't get enough of them. I could do with fewer NCPD scanner missions, though. Those were little more than glorified "combat encounter here" markers and there's already WAY too many of them as it is. So yeah, it wasn't quite the 12/10 revelation I was hoping for but I'd still give it a solid 9/10. Not exactly mind-blowing but it was very my shit, warts and all. Hopefully, if they ever make a sequel (and the earth hasn't burned up by then), they'll be able to deliver a better execution of their vision. As it is, it honestly could benefit from one of those Enhanced Editions they did with the first two Witcher games.

Judgment, that Yakuza spin-off, is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X and, uh *checks notes* ....Stadia. That's right, it's skipping Steam (for now) because of a Stadia exclusivity deal. Also, in other Stadia news today: I'm not even mad. The timing of this is honestly hilarious. Enjoy the three copies you're going to sell, Sega, I guess...

This combines two of my favorite things: rich assholes getting fucked over and Simpsons memes.

2021 is off to a strong start as far as my reading goes. Finished it last night and oooooh boy, that sure was a Stephen King book. Last summer I said about The Stand that it was "the most Stephen King book ever" but yeah, no, this one is that. If you told me that the last third of this book was written during a 3-month long coke binge, I would believe you. Which makes it all the more impressive that at about the same length as The Stand (roughly 1150 pages), it's significantly more cohesive and focused. The Stand is a meandering mess (albeit a very good one) but It is much more focused and, imho, actually nails the ending. Build-up, climax and everything. Which is always nice in a Stephen King book. Like you're usually in for a good time regardless but a solid ending is a nice bonus. The Stand took me 5 weeks to get through and by the end of week 4 I was so fucking ready for it to end. It wasn't bad or anything, the length was just starting to get to me. But I flew through It in just 3 weeks and I'm honestly a little bummed out that it's over. I still haven't watched the second of the recent movies (probably gonna rewatch the first one tonight so I can watch it tomorrow) and I'm really curious to see how the final confrontation will be handled in that one because in the 90s tv miniseries it was laughably bad and, while it works in the book, I'm honestly not sure it's possible to make it work on the screen without taking some serious liberties. The book goes full Lovecraft with cosmic/psychic bullshit and it's the best thing but it's essentially a psychic battle and the closest visual approximation I can think of for what's going on is, like... Like I said: cocaine. Also, it didn't occur to me to post it at the time but what the hell. I completed my goodreads reading challenge for 2020 despite getting a late start! Full list in spoiler tag if anyone is curious. Starts at the bottom. And yes, I read Annihilation twice. I waited too long to read the sequels and it's really short so I said fuck it and just reread it. Set it to 52 this year since I'm starting on time and shooting for a book a week seems reasonable. I expect to lower as the year progresses, though, because I have quite a few massive books that I want to read in the near future, including 3 by Neal Stephenson that are all 1000 pages monsters. And It has already put me like 3 books behind schedule lol.

I guess this is the catch-all RE thread? Capcom had their big showcase stream earlier. New trailer and first gameplay footage. Reeeeaaally digging the RE4 vibes the game is giving off. Creepy Castle, a merchant, inventory tetris. If they also have a lengthier campaign this time (not expecting it to match RE4's ~16 hours but a solid 12+ hours would be nice), then sign me the fuck up. RE7 was way too short. More enemy variety is the other obvious area where they need to improve over RE7 but honestly, I think that gameplay trailer alone might have showed more enemy types than all of RE7 lol.

Hey, he knows what he likes. I wish I had that dedication, tbh. So many times I told myself "gonna play through all games in series xyz!" only to lose interest after a single game and never follow up on it. ? Also since everyone is posting lists. I couldn't be bothered to do my spreadsheet this year so this is mostly going to be from memory. Bloodborne Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Journey Supraland The Room Three Death Stranding Quantum Break Alan Wake Control Witcher 3: Blood & Wine Gears of War 4 That's actually a few more than I would've thought. I figured I had played no more than half a dozen or so. Witcher 3 and Death Stranding alone account for easily 2/3 of my playtime for the entire year lol. Shout out to the new Steam library letting me sort games by "Last played on", giving me a convenient list to scan through to jog my memory! Oh shit wait, I guess I thought that was last year but there was overlap and I finished it in January; Bloodborne goes at the top of the list. Here's to 2021 being the year I finally get to play it on PC!

Yeah, I'm gonna be chasing that Witcher 3 high for a while, I think. Cyberpunk is great but it's just not scratching the same itch. Not that I'm complaining, though, it's definitely filling the Deus Ex-shaped void in my heart. Although, Witcher 3 also made me realize that I enjoy my gaming time far more when I go for quality over quantity, so buying a bunch of Bioware games may not have been the best strategy here lol...

Some purchases from the past few weeks, I may have posted some of these already but it's all stuff I was going to get during the holiday sale anyway so here it is again. And that's the last few of the recently released EA titles I was missing. Not sure why they bothered releasing the first Titanfall on Steam since it's MP-only but the bundle with both games was only like 2 bucks more than Titanfall 2 by itself so what the hell. If I fire it up just once to check it out it'll have been worth it, I guess. It's kinda nice to finally fill these holes in my EA library, though. I've been wanting to give Dragon Age II and Dead Space 3 another shot for a while and having to install Origin was just enough of a hassle that I always just ended up saying fuck it. That should be it for me for this sale and, for once, I think it'll actually end up being the truth. Halo MCC alone should keep me busy for months and there's really just nothing else that's tempting me right now. Doom Eternal and RE3 still haven't dropped below 20 bucks so they can wait a little longer. Oh and some highlights from the current Humble Choice. Really glad I never got around to buying the Zwei games because they made this month the best one in quite a while.

You're on PS4, right? How far in are you? Is it possible your previous session was simply in a less taxing area? I know my framerate can vary wildly depending on which zone I'm in, even on PC. The playable state you described earlier seemed at odds with what everyone else claims to be experiencing on base consoles. Like, I'm not saying it's impossible that this latest hotfix has made performance worse on base consoles. But you'd think that's like the one thing they would make sure to avoid at all costs right now lol.

New update just now removed the 8MB limit on save files.

Wanna get really annoyed? I was reading notes from that emergency investor call and one of them was asking about refunds. Just very concerned about refunds and whether or not he'd be keeping his cut if people refunded the game. It just came off like someone that couldn't give a fuck about the industry or consumers and that only invested because he heard this was gonna be the next hot thing. CDPR is catching a lot of flak and a lot of it is deserved but I can't say I feel bad for these ghouls getting misled. ?

It sounds like it's mainly related to inventory. Especially if you craft a bunch of stuff. I sell everything I don't need and mine is around 3,6MBs after a little under 40 hours. I'll keep an eye on it just in case but, from what I read on reddit, it sounds like people affected crafted like thousands of items to sell. It's probably safe to assume you're very unlikely to hit that 8MB through "normal" play but yeah, they really need to patch this ASAP...

I wouldn't say it exceeded my expectations. It's just so far up my alley that I'm willing to look past most of the flaws. It definitely falls short in some areas but it's just not a big deal to me. Like, it sucks that police spawn right on top of you but I didn't come into this expecting a GTA-style cops-and-robbers system. I guess that's one benefit of avoiding a lot of the marketing. I'm typically not a fan of Bethesda's games either, I bounced off of Skyrim and Fallout 4 super hard the last time I tried them. The Outer Worlds too but I wanna give that one another try at some point. I wondered what the difference was but I think it just comes down to Bethesda's games being incredibly shallow, which Cyberpunk isn't. Cyberpunk is pretty much the same as Witcher 3 for me. I can't say there's any specific thing that's my favorite. The quests and writing are great and the world is so fantastically realized that I could lose myself in it for hours at a time. Driving around is the one thing that makes my PC struggle with the framerate a bit (i.e. drop below 30) but I still refuse to use the fast travel system because driving around Night City and taking in the sights is such a treat. And there's usually a thing or two to take care of on the way.

Oh wow, this is honestly much worse than I expected lol. Yeah, last-gen versions should've either been delayed or cancelled.

Any day now... Also, Nayuta no Kiseki remaster for PS4. Didn't think that one would ever get a chance at localization.

See it's hard to respond to this without knowing what you're talking about here. If you mean the old-gen version then sure. I mean, the post you quoted addresses that so I'm not sure what else you want me to say. But since you said you expected a "buggy dumpster fire of an experience" weeks before launch, it sounds like you're doing that thing where people are conflating the busted old-gen version with the bugginess of the game in general and that's simply, you know, accurate or true. The game I'm playing on PC is buggy for sure but it's hardly "a buggy dumpster fire of an experience". I mean, shit, every single Bethesda game I played at launch has been in a worse state than this. Cyberpunk is actually in a pretty damn good state compared to those. It's buggy but it's not broken. Lmao jesus. How bad could it possibly be? I wonder if this is a reaction to the volume of complaints and refund requests they're getting (and to CDPR telling people they could get refunds seemingly without consulting Sony lol) rather than simply as a result of the state of the game. I mean, this seems unprecedented. Plenty of games had super messy launches in recent years. Off the top of my head: Fallout 76, Mass Effect Andromeda, basically every other Assassin's Creed. And none of them were delisted completely.

Imagine that.

I never denied that they're liars. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh absolutely, and hiding the state of that version was super shitty on their part. That's inexcusable. I'm just saying, it's not that surprising to me to hear the old consoles are struggling to run the game properly. According to that emergency board call that got posted online a few days ago, it sounds like it was (at least partially) a result of neglect on their part while they focused most of their attention on the PC version. So, hopefully, that means that it's possible to patch it to a more reasonable state.

Yeah, ok, I wasn't sure about the next-gen consoles. I just knew the last-gen version ran like shit and it's like... yeah, what did people expect? It's pretty obvious at this point that the game evolved and became something more demanding than consoles released in 2013 could handle. Realistically, that version probably should've been canceled altogether. It was either that, the current situation or downgrading the entire game to make it more scalable across the board. And personally, I'm kinda glad they didn't go with that last one... So it sounds like it's mostly just the last-gen console version being busted being conflated with the expected level of bugginess a game like this usually has at launch. That being said, hiding the state of the last-gen version until after launch was super shitty on their part.