toxicitizen

Bloodborne I'm a few years late on this one but it feels good to have finally played all the Soulsborne games. This one was especially painful to not have access to because it seemed to be generally considered the best one and I kinda love cosmic horror. Now I'm kinda confused why it's so highly regarded compared to Dark Souls because it's... really not that different? At least not significantly enough to justify the amount of people that loved it but that claim to not like Dark Souls. The lore is much cooler and the game does some really cool shit with it (so cool that it still had a massive impact on my enjoyment even though the game had long been thoroughly spoiled for me) but that aspect is ultimately pretty subjective. The faster combat is generally cited as being a big factor but honestly to me the gameplay in general felt very similar. I mean, it's not like Dark Souls forces you to turtle up behind a shield and play slowly. There's a ton of build variety and my playstyle has always been more of a high risk "run up in their faces and kill them before they can react" strategy, which is pretty much exactly how Bloodborne wants you to play. The trick weapons are pretty great, though. I picked the threaded cane because it sounded cool and I made my character to be a scholarly/scientist type, so it seemed like a good fit. I liked it enough that I ended up upgrading it all the way to max level and keeping it for the entire game. I tried some of the other weapons but didn't like them as much, although at that point I had already committed to a skill build, so I was limited in what I could realistically switch to. Fighting with a cane sword that turns into a whip was different enough to make the combat feel fresh all over again but I've seen a ton of videos of people playing with large swords exactly like Dark Souls so again, it's not like the combat is inherently different. The one major difference there is to combat is the way armor works. The stats vary so little from one set to another that they might as well be cosmetic only. The weapon choice is also much more limited, which ends up making it feel like more of an action game than a full-on RPG like Dark Souls. It was interesting playing it after Sekiro because to me it really felt like the missing link between Dark Souls and Sekiro. And as far as the gameplay is concerned, I think I enjoyed Sekiro more. The story on the other hand... Like I said, the game had already been pretty much completely spoiled for me. But I still couldn't help but appreciate how it spends the first few hours lulling you into a false sense of security by basically going: "Yeah man, this is a totally normal werewolf game dude. Don't even worry about it!" And as you get deeper into the city, night falls and you start seeing these really creepy statues in the cathedral and the surrounding woods. Then you get deep enough into those woods and suddenly there's a significant increase in how tentacle-y everything is and WAIT, what the FUCK is that?! You kill a certain boss and then the Truth reveals itself to you and it's just such a gigantic HOLY SHIT moment. I can only imagine how fucking awesome it must've been for people that played at launch after going in with no information whatsoever. It's such an incredible way to build up to it that by the time I was in the late game and fairly overpowered, I was still tense as fuck because of how creepy everything was. I honestly can't think of anything else that executed this kind of twist so well. It's so fucking good! It reeeeaaally fucking sucks that this is the game stuck in a console exclusivity deal because holy shit, I wanna play this on PC. I mean, I kinda did through PS Now but it's just not the same. The image quality in general is shit because of the compression that's inevitable when streaming a game. And the game's art direction is so fucking good, I wanna crank the resolution way up and put some anti-aliasing on that shit. Running it at 60fps would also significantly improve the experience. Normally I'd jump into NG+ and go for all the trophies but playing on PS Now kinda makes me not give a shit about that. I went out of my way to do all the optional areas and bosses, got the secret ending and watched the others on youtube. The game doesn't even include the Old Hunters DLC anyway, so I could go for the platinum but I'd still be missing a few trophies. Besides, they just added Uncharted Lost Legacy and Horizon on PS Now (this one actually including the DLC, for some reason) so I kinda need to move on because, unlike Bloodborne, those are only available for a limited time. And my new GPU got here literally as I was typing this up, so there's also some Witcher 3 to play!

I was gonna save up for this but I got some unexpected money for christmas, so I decided to pull the trigger early. It was tempting to wait a few months to see what the RTX 3000 cards are like but if the 2060 is any indication then they'll likely be well outside my price range anyway. This is more of a stopgap that I'm hoping will get me through at least the cross-gen phase of the next console cycle. Beyond that, I'll likely need to upgrade my CPU as well, which means an entirely new build. I may upgrade to a fancy ray-tracing card then but until then, this should let me play things at a respectable framerate again. Plus, I really wanted the upgrade before Cyberpunk comes out, just in case. I have a feeling my GTX 960 just isn't going to cut it... It's gonna be really nice to finally play Monster Hunter World at 60fps (or at least, reasonably close to it) when I jump back in with Iceborne. But I'll be tossing a coin to my Witcher, first. Definitely wanna get Witcher 3 out of the way before Cyberpunk. This card should easily max it out and maintain a locked 60fps but I think I may even be able to leave Hairworks on!

Oh lol, I thought you'd be way further into it by now. Unless it's like CSII's Acts and you're like halfway through? Btw, Durante's mystery JRPG is supposed to be announced this month. There's also an AMA with him scheduled on r/games on January 17th, so I imagine the announcement will be around that time. Less than 3 weeks until we know for sure!

Shit, I really don't know. The year was ridiculously frontloaded with RE2, DMC5 and Sekiro but then I spent the rest of it chipping away at the backlog so uh... one of those? RE2 was everything I wanted it to be and more. Sekiro was just different enough from the usual Souls formula to kick my ass all over again and I actually remember it much more fondly than Dark Souls 2 and 3 because of it. I'll definitely be giving it a replay at some point, possibly closer to Elden Ring's release. That being said, I think the one that pulled my devil trigger the hardest was... (start the video now for full effect!) Just getting DMC5 at all after a decade of anticipation was incredible, especially after that misguided reboot and the years of silence that followed. It wasn't just everything I wanted it to be and more, though. It topped DMC3 as the best of the series, the story was pure fan service injected straight into my veins and the gameplay was the best it's ever been. And it did all of that while having the hypest fucking theme song of all time, one to surpass even Metal Gear (Rising). Honorable mention to my boy Kazuma Kiryu. They were late ports but I played 2 Yakuza games this year and I honestly would've happily played 2 more. I swear to god, SEGA, if you don't release those remasters on PC in 2020 I'm gonna scream!

I feel like pointing to the OT and saying it didn't have a plan either is kind of a disingenuous argument because people criticize the sequels for things that really don't apply to the OT. Like, yeah, A New Hope was originally just one movie that became a surprise hit, so they made sequels. And sure, George was making it up as he went along and he's not a particularly good storyteller either but it was still one person telling a story that moved forward in a coherent way. Empire built upon A New Hope and there was clearly some thought put towards Return of the Jedi with introducing Palpatine, Luke not finishing his training and the cliffhanger with Han. With the sequels you've got Force Awakens setting up the pieces on the board and getting things rolling. Then Last Jedi immediately flips the table and throws most of the pieces away, leaving Rise of Skywalker to clumsily pick some of them back up along with some random trash that just happened to be on the floor. Like, no one is saying the OT was some kind of masterclass in tight storytelling but at least it worked as a trilogy. The movies don't feel like they actively resent their direct prequels...

Celeste Went back to it like two weeks ago intending to finish the last couple chapters and then do the DLC one. My plan was to finish a few short games I had already started before the end of the year but oooh boy, I did NOT realize what I was getting into. I had like 6 hours of playtime when I had initially stopped playing and now, well... I was gonna wait until I was completely done with it before posting but it's obvious now that won't happen for a while. I got like less than a third of the way through the DLC chapter (based on a playthrough I saw on youtube) before realizing the huge mistake I had made. That chapter is insanely fucking hard and the screen I got completely stuck on is literally a tutorial. And it took me like 3 hours to even get there. So I went back and started playing through all the "optional" B-Sides and C-Sides levels and yeah, that's where the difficulty curve went lol. I'm still stuck on the last screen of the chapter 8 C-Side. I'm getting there but holy fuck is it hard. And then I can go back to the DLC, which should be easier now but is likely still going to take me a while to get through. So yeah, Celeste is absolutely fantastic and you should all play it if you like good 2D platformers. As far as I'm concerned, it's up there with the likes of Super Meat Boy and Dustforce.

Numbers may not be accurate but I just took a quick glance at wikipedia. It says TFA broke 2 billions, TLJ is 1.3b and RoS is currently at 725 mil, so I can easily see it breaking the billion mark as well. My point was all three movies were insanely profitable so she technically did her job. They probably don't want shitty movies but quality is basically irrelevant with these numbers. And not that I want to defend JJ here, because even his best movies are only kind of okay. But I'm willing to cut TFA some slack because, after the acquisition, making the safest possible movie right out of the gate was kind of the smart thing to do. They needed to wash the bad taste of the prequels out of everyone's mouth and like him or not, JJ wasn't a bad choice for that job. Like, the one thing he's actually good at is starting stories and setting things up with his mystery box bullshit. Yeah, it was A New Hope again but let's not forget that ANH was pretty much just The Hidden Fortress with a space opera coat of paint. Star Wars is at its best when it steals from samurai movies and westerns. Case in point: The Mandalorian. Hiring him back for RoS was stupid as fuck, though. He's definitely not the guy you want to wrap things up because he doesn't give a shit, to him answers aren't the point. Also, I don't agree at all that TLJ left a good foundation to build upon. Gonna spoiler this bit just in case someone hasn't seen RoS yet but

@TheMightyEthan Yeah, like Cowboy said, it was originally supposed to be Colin Trevorrow, who doesn't exactly have a stellar track record either. Jurassic World is my kinda trash but Book of Henry sounds like a spectacular dumpster fire. If you have 40mins to kill, this is an interesting and baffling breakdown of it. Just imagine Rise of Skywalker made by this guy lol. Also re: Kathleen Kennedy. I haven't really followed the production side of things for this trilogy but if she's the one that decided to give each movie to a different filmmaker with no plan and just let them do whatever the fuck they want, then yeah this is on her. I don't feel strongly about her getting fired or not because, frankly, I really don't give a shit about Star Wars at this point. But I honestly doubt it's gonna happen because regardless of perceived quality or backlash, these movies still made billions for Disney, which is ultimately all that really matters to them.

JJ had to shoot there as well though (admittedly much less), so I would expect it wasn't chosen as a location without any consideration. Plus, Johnson was writing his own script so it's not like anyone forced him to set half of his movie on that particular island. And even if it was that much of a problem, I still feel like it's ultimately less of a giant fuck you to the next guy than "the answers to all the questions set up by the previous film are 'no', 'nothing' and 'it doesn't matter'. Also the main villain is now dead. GL;HF!!!" Like, it was so bad that Rise of Skywalker had to waste screentime undoing most of it and also pull Palpatine out of its ass. I mean, I'm sure there was a way to follow up Last Jedi and not be shit but I wouldn't want to be the one stuck with that job lol. And I'll say it again, I actually liked The Last Jedi! It just had the (I'm assuming unintended) side-effect of making me check out on Star Wars completely. After TFA I was on board for more and was looking forward to the next one. TLJ just left me not really giving a shit anymore. I only went to see Rise of Skywalker to get it over with and hopefully laugh at the movie. And yeah, Mando is pretty great. I still need to watch the last few episodes but I really enjoyed those I've watched.

You know this trilogy was a fucking mess when it makes you go "well at least the prequels were SOMEONE'S vision". And yeah, anyone involved with the production claiming there ever was any kind of plan is a fucking liar lol. If there had been ANY kind of plan, then Rian Johnson would never have been allowed to fuck up the trilogy like he did. And this isn't even a dig at The Last Jedi. I think it's actually the most interesting out of the entire trilogy. At the very least, it had some fucking balls and actually tried to be something. I honestly hope the Rian Johnson trilogy is still happening. But TLJ pretty much threw the baby out with the bath water in such a way that there was basically nowhere to go from there. It wasn't a bad movie or even a bad Star Wars but it sure as shit was a terrible part 2 of a trilogy. The way I see it, Rian Johnson's failing isn't as a filmmaker, it's as a team player. He just didn't give a shit who had to pick up the pieces after he was gone lol. A part of me really wants to see the Colin Trevorrow version of this movie now. At least maybe that one would've been funny.

Rise of Skywalker. What a giant pile of shit. I actually have a headache...

Well, I guess the only way for you to go is up then, because I feel like every time I see people mention Ni no Kuni it's to complain about how mediocre it is lol. It's good to hear you enjoyed it, though, because now that it's on PC I do intend to try it out for myself at some point.

Probably cheaper to get a PS4 copy at this point. Alternatively, have you tried using the FAR mod? It fixes a lot of issues with the port. There might also be something useful here if you haven't checked: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Nier:_Automata

So no one else checked out The Witcher? I finished it last night and it's overall pretty solid. It's no Game of Thrones but once things get going at the end of the first episode it's pretty good until the end. I'm definitely looking forward to season 2. I also really came around on Cavill by the end of it. I don't know if it's him getting more comfortable with the part or just not having much to work with in the early eps but about halfway through I pretty much had accepted him as Geralt. What really sold me on his Geralt was when he started interacting with Dandelion because holy fuck is Dandelion great in this lol. And I say this as someone that hated him in the games. The one thing I feel could've been done better is making the timeline of events clearer because it can get a little confusing at times. There's enough for you to piece it together but it's kinda sneeze and you'll miss it. I've seen a lot of confusion online about this.

I'm 3 episodes into Netflix's The Witcher and it's alright. Not incredible by any means and I've never read the books, so for all I know it might be a terrible adaptation. But I'm enjoying it so far and it's kinda neat to see all these characters way before the games even started. It's actually making me want to finally get around to playing Witcher 3. That being said, I know Geralt is a brooding, stoic kinda guy but I swear Henry Cavill has less personality than polygons lol. Geralt from the games had way more charisma than his portrayal here, at least so far.

So you're saying it's not the GOTY? I think this might actually be the first time this year.

Lol you were faster than me, I came here to post that same Crossbell Kai tweet. And yeah, seems like this is the best shot at getting Crossbell we'll likely ever have. Also, I vaguely remember hearing about another game coming that was still related to Cold Steel, like an epilogue spin-off kinda deal. Any idea if Hajimari is that or a completely new arc? Oh and I guess I never got around to posting it but I heard some rumors re: Falcom ditching XSEED for NISA a little while back. The short version is that the catalyst for Falcom starting to take bids from other companies was XSEED deciding to pass on localizing Tokyo Xanadu. I remember taking a screenshot specifically for posting here. That poster seemed to have spoken to people that would know about this but obviously take it with a grain of salt. Personally, considering how things went down, I think I'm inclined to believe it. At the very least, something must've happened for the partnership between XSEED and Falcom to break down like it has.

Just gonna leave this here...

Dad of Boy God of War Finally finished it last night and uh, this is one of those games that really makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. It's good, very good even. It does a lot of things really well. It looks absolutely fantastic, the world design is great, Kratos has actually grown as a character, there's plenty to love here. But GOTY? Fuck no, it fails way too hard and fundamentally as an action game to even be included in the conversation. This is a game that's way too obsessed with looking Cinematic™, to the detriment of gameplay. And I feel confident that this was a deliberate choice because of the whole one-cut thing. It's a neat presentation trick, I guess? But it really adds nothing of value to the game and you probably wouldn't even notice it unless you knew about it beforehand. The over-the-shoulder camera also looks much cooler than the zoomed out camera in previous games and this is where the game kinda fell apart for me. Having a camera that's a little zoomed out in a third-person melee action game is fairly common sense. When fighting large groups of enemies at once, situational awareness is key and you need to see what you're up against so you can react and do basic crowd control. If that much is obvious to me then there's no doubt in my mind that the developers at Sony Santa Monica knew this as well. Which makes it all the more baffling that they decided to just zoom that camera right the fuck up to Kratos' back for an over-the-shoulder view. And there's definitely a way to make that camera work. Godhand did it years ago and God of War is fine like 80% of the time. It's super fun when against a group of canon fodder enemies or one on one against a big boss. But when you're up against a group of higher level enemies it just turns to fucking shit in a hurry and at times it made me genuinely hate the game. If you're going to so severely inhibit the player's situational awareness, then you need to design your enemies to behave in a way that's compatible with this. For example, Bayonetta's enemies are less aggressive and don't shoot projectiles when they're off-camera because being hit by something you couldn't see coming and had no chance to dodge isn't very fun. In God of War, enemies just don't give a fuck and will surround the shit out of you. Sometimes I'd get stun-locked by enemies standing right behind me that I couldn't see. Other times my attacks with the blades would get interrupted because some asshole with a shield decided to crawl up my ass. And then there's those fucking dark elves that will dodge your attacks by flying straight up and out of the screen completely because who needs to see what's happening? Also, they have an attack that blinds you because fuck you. That Alfheim section made me seriously question whether or not I wanted to keep playing the game and every time those enemies showed up again afterwards made me roll my eyes and groan. I did all the side-quests I ran into but when I realized the last tier of weapon upgrades were locked behind those combat trials gauntlets, I just said fuck it and went to finish the game because at that point I felt like the game's idea of challenge was not to throw interesting curve balls but just to throw obnoxious shit at you. In a way, playing this on Playstation Now was a blessing in disguise because if I had paid full price for this I probably would've felt compelled to do everything and go for the platinum. But now I'm perfectly happy to peace out without having done any of the end game combat challenges or having to hunt down all collectibles. I did enjoy the story a lot, though. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus was handled really well and the game did a good job of making me curious about this new world. This take on Norse mythology is pretty fucking metal and I honestly like it even more than the Greek setting of the previous games. This version of Odin and Thor sound like complete fucking psychopaths and contrasting this incredibly violent and dark take with the shiny and clean MCU version is kind of hilarious. It was a little disappointing that they ended up not playing a part in the story at all but at some point it became kind of obvious that the game was only dropping that backstory to build them up for a potential sequel. I was gonna do Bloodborne next but I don't think there's enough time until my PS Now month expires, so I think maybe I'll wait a little bit. I kinda feel like playing some games with lower production values for now, anyway. Between this and Uncharted 4, I think I've had my fill of CiNeMaTiC gAmEpLaY for a little while...

I wonder if the name may be them going all-in on incremental upgrades. I don't remember if it was a rumor or confirmed, but apparently they'll have both a low spec and high spec SKU right out of the gate and calling it Series tells me they're likely planning to have more along the way. So all their next-gen systems will fall under Series X and once it's time for another jump it'll be another series. So everything going forward could run on future boxes but when there's a gen leap you'll have new games with a base requirement like "runs on Xbox starting at Series XYZ". At least, that's the only way I can rationalize such a weird name. Like, they never had any coherent naming convention but even for them this one seems kinda weird unless this is their intention. Then again, maybe they just wanted to have a system people could call the Xbox SeX. Actually yeah, that's probably it...

That Resistance co-op game being included with it is a nice twist. Means I'll be much more willing to give it a chance, although hopefully its inclusion is not indicative of the campaign being shorter. Also, April 3rd is WAY sooner than I would've expected. They usually do E3 announcements -> January/February release, so usually 6 months or more between reveal and launch. I wonder why they didn't just announce it at E3 as usual.

Someone pushed a button early on PSN. There were too many rumors recently for this to not be in the works, but the timing seems to confirm that it'll be announced at the Game Awards. Can't wait to get a proper look at it! It's pretty obvious development started long before RE2 shipped, so hopefully it didn't go in a different direction. All I want is literally more of the same but with Nemesis.

Durante actually co-founded a porting studio earlier this year (or probably last year, he announced it in back in january). So if the game he's teasing actually is ToCS3 then I think it's safe to assume they were hired for the job. Especially since he's essentially confirming technical details which he wouldn't be able to guarantee if he was just consulting. IIRC some of the small things he implemented in Ys VIII were rolled back by whoever got their hands on the port later on lol. That's good to hear. If it's even only slightly better than the Ys VIII reloc, then I think I should be able to live with it. How much time have you managed to put into ToCS3, btw? Have there been any moments where you felt like not having played Crossbell was a noticeable issue?

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?! The first two aren't even on Switch, for fuck's sake... ? edit: All hope is not lost!