toxicitizen

For the past few months I've been basing my decision purely on whether or not I wanted the early unlock and the secret games have been consistently better in the bundles I ended up skipping lol. Which led to me getting last month's despite not needing Dark Souls II and... well, it would've been pretty good if I didn't already own Hyper Light Drifter, I guess. Kero Blaster looks great and I'll definitely try that Sherlock Holmes game. But yeah, at this point I'm getting ready to just start flipping a coin or something...

Neon Struct. Comparisons to Deus Ex and Thief always make me simultaneously curious and skeptical. They're two of my favorite game series, so it's enough to make me interested in a game but it also sets the bar pretty damn high. So, for an indie game made by (as far as I can tell) just one dude, Neon Struct is a shockingly good effort. It's obviously limited in many ways. It has a very minimalist art style that frankly doesn't look all that great (think Blendo Games but without the strong art direction), it's not a full-on immersive sim (the maps are all fairly small and there are no hubs, just a linear sequence of small, short levels) and there aren't many options given to you gameplay-wise, it's pretty much just a stealth game. But even within that limited scope it still manages to capture at least part of the essence that made Deus Ex so special at the time. Some maps have you doing simple objectives that would be relegated to the hub (like go buy a train pass and catch the train), and even the "mission" maps are completely open despite being small. One mission has you infiltrating and clinic and there's like half a dozen ways to enter the building. It's surprisingly great. It has the kind of plot you'd expect from such a game, people are always talking to you over comms, you're constantly hacking doors and shit (although the hacking minigame is... kinda dumb. It's literally Breakout.) Oh and it has an absolutely fantastic soundtrack! So, yeah, Neon Struct was a pleasant surprise and gets the FLD seal of approval.

Yeah, Uncharted's strengths are the characters, the summer blockbuster plots and the set pieces. All of them elevated by Naughty's Dog's stellar cutscenes. I don't necessarily agree with mediocre (I just enjoy bullying Cowboy), but from a gameplay standpoint it's objectively nothing exceptional.

By that logic, GTA IV has a metacritic score of 98 so the entire Uncharted series is worse than GTA IV. Think about that for a second!

Made for mediocre hardware, too!

I actually agree! It isn't and it never was!

Today was Humble Monthly day, which means I got a bunch of games that I won't bother posting and they revealed next month's early unlock. It doesn't happen all that often but the early unlock was an instant resub for me. Even if everything else ends up being shit, this is still cheaper than it's ever been.

Is it better than Uncharted 3, though????

They're not mutually exclusive! If it's the GOAT then it kinda has to be the GOTY at some point as well.

I would argue that it technically is! If I wanted to, 3rd and Cold Steel PC could end up tied for my GOTY 2017 and there's nothing anyone could do to stop me!

Fate/Extella coming to Steam July 25. Gonna be 50 bucks and include no DLC. Given XSEED's comment about wanting PC versions for most of their games, I assumed this was a sure thing when they first announced the game. But then they announced a Switch port out of nowhere with no word about PC. Turns out it's coming at the same time, which makes me think they don't seem to be learning from their mistakes. :/ I wonder how many bombs it'll take before they get it into their thick skulls that dropping a game on Steam with no warning until the last minute isn't going to cut it anymore. There was no valid reason whatsoever not to announce this alongside the Switch version or as part of their E3 line-up. Yet they felt the need to give a heads up for Zwei, which is essentially guaranteed to sell about ~46 copies regardless of any marketing. I still love you, XSEED, but sometimes you make my head hurt...

Jack, you make it sound like the PC version is 15 years old or something lol. The version that came out on mobile and Steam last year is pretty much a remaster in all but name. IIRC, they rebuilt the game from the ground up in a new engine and actually touched up the character models a bit and used high res backgrounds when available. They just didn't remake all the art assets from scratch.

Alright, done for real this time. Sale ends tomorrow anyway. The temptation to grab the last Blackwell game led to me actually playing the first two and they're about as good as I expected. That ended up putting me in a point-and-click mood, so I got Kathy Rain as well because it looks pretty cool. Thimbleweed Park is the one that looks really great but it's still almost 20 bucks, so it's gonna have to wait. Not sure what to expect from Neon Struct. It sounds great on paper (first-person cyberpunk stealth game) and comparisons to Thief and Deus Ex make it sound like something I would definitely love but the borderline abstract visuals have always put me on the fence until now. Hopefully it has the mechanical depth to satisfy a stealth junkie like me. Oh and I also got the expansion DLC for Hand of Fate. The game turned out to be super fun, so I figured having more cards in the mix couldn't hurt.

Looking through my list, I guess I haven't played a lot of new releases this year. And the most high profile ones are on platforms I don't own, so... yeah. Anyway, highlights so far: Resident Evil 7: RE7 wasn't just good, it was actually a strong return to form for the series. Which is honestly way more than anyone in their right mind should've expected from modern day Capcom. It kinda falls apart in the last act but I can look past that since everything that came before was so good. Really curious to see what comes next and how that free Chris DLC will turn out (especially since they delayed it citing quality reasons and surprise at the highly positive reception of the game). Hollow Knight: One of the best metroidvanias I've played in a long time, possibly since Super Metroid. I'm not even worried about sounding hyperbolic, it really is that goddamn good. There's also some obvious Souls inspiration, which is always nice to see (and I mean real Souls inspiration, not "hur durr hard gaem"). NieR: Automata: This is the most Kojima game I've played since Metal Gear Solid 2. In a time when the future of the MGS series is uncertain and Kojima's actual next game is still an unknown quantity, this was a very welcome surprise. Especially coming as a sequel to a bad game that was bad and shit. Suck it, Tenshi! The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd: I mean, duh.

That was delusional and I knew it. Managed to bring my cart down to ~30 bucks and said fuck it. Hopefully I won't be tempted to grab more, gotta save my money for Cold Steel! Last Door is the bundle for both seasons and I also got some DLC I was missing for the two most recent King's Bounty games because it was dirt cheap. I can honestly say I'm getting better at only grabbing stuff I actually want to play in the near future. I've so far managed to avoid buying stuff just because I want it in my library or games that I know are very likely to go on sale again before I ever get around to them.

What about death threats? I hear they're all the rage with the kids these days. They're all about death threats and Pokémon. Send your Pokémon death threats to Kondo if you want Crossbell on Steam!

Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo really wants Zero and Ao to release in english according to this interview. He often has a tendency to give non-answers and being very non-committal when it comes to hypothetical questions like this, so it's pretty encouraging that he's actually saying he wants to make it happen. Just... please let it be through XSEED. No need to find a new partner!

You're never truly done until the sale is over. I've been adding stuff to my cart for the past two days like an idiot, knowing full well I won't be keeping half of it. Hopefully I'll outlast the sale and it'll be over before I get a chance to send it through!

The day we have all been waiting for is getting closer!

Eh, maybe I sounded more critical than I intended. I really love the show so far and I agree on all those moments you mentioned. They were great and I'd even add the part at the end when I just feel like most great shonen tend to have that moment or arc when shit gets real and the show hits the next gear. I'm not sure how else to describe it other than just giving examples from other shows. I already mentioned Arlong and the Chunin Exam. Bleach had the Soul Society arc, and so on. It's clearly way too early for MHA since that was basically just the introduction arc, so I'm not holding it against it or anything. And even without having reached that admittedly ambiguous moment I'm talking about, I'd still put everything so far a notch above your typical shonen if only because of how it eschews typical conventions of the genre when it comes to the protagonist. Deku is basically the anti-Naruto and I'm really digging that.

Sorry, I'm not into frogs. I don't really have a favorite yet. Although, I love how that one dude basically turns into a retard if he overdoes it with his power lol.

Lol. It's pretty good. I like the superhero theme and having both All Might and Deku being so limited in how they can use their abilities feels like a very fresh and interesting take on the shonen formula to me. It's obviously good enough for me to want to keep watching but I feel like it hasn't had that "holy shit!" moment yet. You know, that moment when a show like this goes from good to amazing, like the Arlong or Chunin Exam arcs. Though, that's to be expected with such a short season.

Aww fuck, I finished My Hero Academia season 1 last night and I'm only now realizing that season 2 isn't over yet. I assumed it would be the same length but it's 25 eps. Guess I'll hold off for a few months before watching it... -__- Gotta find something else to watch for now, I guess. They added so much stuff since the last time I checked that I'm honestly not sure where to even begin. A lot of series I was hoping would be added actually were.

Metro Redux. The announcement for Metro Exodus gave me the push I needed to finally play Last Light. The Redux bundle just so happened to be on sale at the time, so instead of playing the copy I already owned I said fuck it, grabbed the bundle and replayed the original as well. The short version is that I enjoyed them so much that I ended up ordering the books they're based on. Really looking forward to reading those. For the long version: Metro 2033. I already played this one years ago but I'm really glad I chose to replay it. The original release was very much a flawed gem and the Redux version gives it a lot of much needed polish. New mechanics and QOL improvements from Last Light were backported to it, including improved stealth mechanics that were sorely needed. It's still not really designed for stealth play but at least the stealth isn't super wonky now. Ultimately, it's still a flawed gem, albeit a much less flawed one now and certainly my favorite of the two games. It just has better atmosphere and more memorable levels and moments overall. Metro: Last Light. In Last Light, stealth doesn't feel like an afterthought and most of the levels are designed with it in mind. That's a massive improvement as far as I'm concerned and unarguably makes Last Light the better game mechanically. It's unfortunately a bit of a double-edged sword. The problem is mainly with the story. It starts out interesting enough (especially coming right from 2033) but you spend half the game chasing after things and always ending up falling just one step behind. It's kinda frustrating and feels like you're not making progress. It does get better in the second half but it's still not as interesting as the first game. Metro 2033 has you going on this desperate journey through the metro to save your home station from this creepy, unknown evil. It's scary and exciting and is paced pretty appropriately. Last Light is more ordinary by comparison, with a bigger focus on the human politics of the metro and it suffers from pacing issues with some sections that felt way too slow or long to me. Another problem is that, due to the story and focus on stealth, you're up against human enemies most of the time. The ratio of combat against humans vs mutants is almost reversed from the first game. That was a little disappointing because the sections on the surface or the ones that focused on horror were some of the best ones from 2033. As much as I enjoy sneaking around dark tunnels and silently taking out human guards, that wasn't what made me love Metro 2033 so much. Last Light is still a great game, I just didn't like it as much as 2033. I played both games in Spartan mode, which is balanced more like a shooter with plenty of filters and ammos. I still need to do a Survivor mode run of both games because I really like the survival horror-ish balance and resource management of the original 2033 more. I kinda regret not going for Survivor on my first run but I have to do both for achievements anyway, so I figured I'd get this one done first. There aren't any achievements for it but I think I'll combine my Survivor run with Ranger mode to keep things interesting. I really love the idea of a more immersive, HUD-less mode with more lethal combat (both for the enemies and you).