toxicitizen

It was pretty disappointing when they didn't announce anything at E3 but I think there's still hope for Splinter Cell. Clint Hocking, the main designer behind Chaos Theory, is back at Ubisoft as of about a year ago. Not only that but he's currently acting as creative director at Ubisoft Toronto, the studio that made Blacklist, and working on something unannounced. And back when the Panama Papers leak happened, him and his lead designer used that as an excuse to do a Let's Play of the Panama Bank level from Chaos Theory. I might be reading way too much into this but I'd like to think it's not all just a coincidence. In a perfect world, Blacklist bombing didn't result in the death of the series but rather in Ubisoft reevaluating their approach and rehiring him to come back and bring the series back to its roots. Maybe...

I thought Blacklist was about halfway there, to be honest. Felt like a reasonable compromise between the old style and the Conviction style. But yeah, it's just not the same. I replayed Chaos Theory a few years ago and was kind of blown away by it all over again. So yeah, at least CT holds up. That's something...

I've only played like 20 games so far, most of them older releases, so there's not a lot of candidates for me. That being said... XCOM 2 and Dark Souls III are the obvious big ones. Both were solid entries into their respective series and overall felt like improvements on their predecessors.Sunk 50+ hours in both and will definitely do it again considering both have DLC that's either coming or out already. Firewatch, SuperHot, The Witness and INSIDE were all great but, as far as indies go, Hyper Light Drifter has been the standout for me so far. It's just one of those games that feels like it was made specifically for me. I loved pretty much everything about it. And I have to at least mention Zero Time Dilemma, if only because it was a great finale to that trilogy and it almost didn't happen. It doesn't necessarily compare to the big ones but playing it was definitely one of my most enjoyable gaming experience this year. But man, looking back on what I've played so far this year has made me realize that 2016 is kind of insane in the AAA space for me. A lot of my all-time favorite series have dropped or are dropping new releases: XCOM, Dark Souls, Deus Ex and Dishonored. Hell, I haven't played it yet but I'd include Mirror's Edge in that as well. Oh and Hitman, too! Off the top of my head, all that's missing is a new Thief and Splinter Cell.

Been waiting for this one for what feels like forever. I liked everything I've played by Blendo Games, so it was always going to be on my radar. But the premise of this one is just right up my alley. I mean, a retro cyberpunk hacking/stealth game? Yes, please!

Odallus: The Dark Call. Welp, between this and Oniken, JoyMasher are officially one of my favorite indie devs. If Oniken was a mash-up of Ninja Gaiden, Strider and Contra, Odallus is more like Castlevania meets, well, Castlevania. It's basically old-school NES Castlevania but with some added exploration elements that wouldn't be introduced into the series until much later. There's hidden upgrades and secrets, backtracking to reach areas after you get mobility upgrades, etc. You know, the usual metroidvania stuff. Not quite as difficult as Oniken but the final boss did take me like an hour of practice before I managed to get him. Much like Oniken, the story is fairly minimal but it gets the job done. There's some short dialogue bits before bosses and some short cutscenes at the beginning and the very end but that's about it. It almost has a slightly Dark Souls-like creepy vibe to it. It's kinda crazy the atmosphere they managed to pull off with such limited visuals and music. So yeah, really enjoyed this one. I have to say I'm loving this trend (I guess you could call it a subgenre?) of retro games that for all intents and purposes might as well be actual NES titles. Shovel Knight and Axiom Verge were both fantastic and now you can add Oniken and Odallus to that list, too. Gonna have to be on the lookout for more of those (as well as whatever JoyMasher does next, obviously).

Oniken. Hoooly shit, this is one hell a fucking game. Turns out I didn't have to look very hard for more retro awesomeness. I don't even remember when I bought it, just that I tried the demo a while back and actually rage quit it. I rage quit the fucking demo, let that sink in for a second. This is one of those games that kinda feels like it should be played on an actual NES. It looks like an NES game, sounds like an NES game and plays like an NES game, complete with Nintendo-hard difficulty. As far as feeling like a genuine NES title goes, it's up there with Shovel Knight. Basically, it's one of those crazy hard action platformer in the style of Ninja Gaiden, Strider, Contra, etc. Despite what I often shouted at my monitor while playing, the difficulty actually isn't bullshit at all. I got most of the levels down to a science at this point, so once you get into that rhythm it's pretty manageable. But there's just so much shit going on in some levels that missing just a single step can throw your rhythm off entirely and it'll be next to impossible to fully recover. The level design is kinda brilliant in how you can tell that removing just one element (whether it's the environmental hazard, an enemy, a pit or even some random projectile) would make the game significantly easier, but all of them come together in a way that's completely doable yet incredibly challenging. Oh and remember those no death achievements from Titan Souls and Hyper Light Drifter that I was complaining about? Yeah, Oniken has them too but for each individual levels, which makes them much more sane. I already have the no death and time trial achievements for like half the levels. Think I'll go for 100% completion on this one. It's gonna be tough but it's so good! edit: Goddamnit, I spoke way too soon on that one. There's an achievement for beating the game in hardcore mode. What's hardcore mode? Well... Yeah, I don't know about that... Worst part is if it wasn't for the no heal between stages thing, I think I'd actually still give it a shot. I mean, once you know what you're doing the game is only about 30mins long, so a failed run isn't a huge waste of time. And if I can beat each level in one life separately, there's no reason I couldn't do them all in a single run. But so many of them end with barely any health left, the health refill is something I rely on way too much. :/ Anyway, gonna have to buy Odallus: The Dark Call soon, I think. It's the most recent game by the same devs and it looks like the Castlevania version of what Oniken is. I kinda regret not buying it during the summer sale now. I've been hearing good things about it for a while, so it was already on my wishlist.

That's because you haven't actually seen the ending. Maybe YouTube it if you really don't want to do the Riddler stuff but yeah, you need to complete all the villains' sidequests before you can trigger the true ending. It was pretty stupid of them to lock it behind all that busywork. But yeah, I agree, it's pretty great. It got a lot of shit due to the state of the PC version at launch (deservedly so) but people that still act as if the actual game was somehow bad are insane.

After passing up on it multiple times at five bucks, Duke Nukem Forever has finally hit the sweet spot of one dollar, where I can finally justify buying it just to see how bad it actually is. This is the Humble 2K Bundle 2, and I think it might actually be the first time I get the 1$ tier of one of these. But more importantly, holy fucking lmao, Battleborn in the 15$ tier! Talk about a fucking bomb, holy shit. I'm guessing it's going F2P by the end of the year. Going up against Overwatch was complete suicide. I'm not one to generally enjoy seeing games or studios fail but I'd be lying if I said a part of me isn't happy to see that lying sack of shit Randy Pitchford crash and burn. edit: Fuck it. Normally I'd wait for a sale but if this is even half as good as Oniken it's worth paying full price for.

It's coming pretty soon. Like, next week or something. They just announced it.

Hyper Light Drifter. I actually went into this one with a pretty strong bias. I've wanted to love this game ever since I saw that first trailer. Everything about it just seemed incredibly appealing to me. So, it was kind of a bummer when at first it looked like it wouldn't quite be on that level. See, the game can be pretty challenging, which is fine. But I ended up accidentally going into one of the hardest areas of the entire game first (pro tip: go east, not west). So, my first couple hours with it were a fairly frustrating experience. But I got good and made it through the area. Then I went somewhere else and it was MUCH easier (probably even more so than it should've been after getting through that first area) and I just kinda went "Oh...". At that point, the game had been growing on me the better I got at it and that was when everything just fell into place. Which is to say: this game is fucking great! It's basically old school NES Zelda on acid. You're exploring a somewhat open world map at your own leisure and gathering pieces of a thing made out of triangles. More importantly, this game has satisfying fast-paced combat, an RPG-lite progression, a great soundtrack and some incredible pixel art. There's also a story in there somewhere but fuck if I understood any of it. I mean, the fourth area had some pretty cool environmental storytelling but I'm still not sure what the fuck was actually going on in the game. Would be interesting to read an interpretation by someone smarter than I am. But man, that pixel art, though! It is so good. I'm not one to usually take a lot of screenshots while playing a game but in this case I just couldn't help myself. I mean, look at this! It's not the level of detail that's impressive so much as the art direction. There was clearly a strong vision behind this game and holy shit I am loving everything about it. It kept reminding me of Adventure Time, for some reason. Not sure if it was because of the colorful post-apocalypse vibe or just because the main character has little ears on his hat. Probably both... I took more screenshots but I don't wanna spam a ton of them, so here's a couple more that might be considered spoilerish? Here's the full album if anyone's interested. Should be publicly viewable. Also, seriously, what the fuck is up with these games and completely insane achievements? Just like Titan Souls, this one also has a fucking "beat the entire game without dying lol" achievement. I mean, playing the hardest NG+ mode is fine, I'm game for that challenge. But a one life run can be so easily screwed up and then your entire playthrough was a waste of time. That kinda makes me not even want to try unless there's a cheap way to save scum. :/ Anyway, so yeah, that was pretty damn good. Now I kinda want to play more retro-inspired gaming goodness. Not sure what, though. I'm sure I have at least a few great ones in my Steam library but digging them up through the trash isn't exactly easy short of trying them all one by one. Maybe I should just finally play Cave Story. I got it from like one of the first Humble Bundles. It's way overdue for a playthrough. edit: Oh, can't believe I forgot to mention this but if you play this on PC and own a Steam controller, do yourself a favor: turn on emulated rumble and set it to 8-bit mode. It's so perfect for this game that you'd think it was made specifically for it.

Hitman GO: Definitive Edition. Cool little puzzle game, not really much else to say about it. I bought it back when it first came out on Steam but it was pretty much unplayable due to constant crashing (like a dozen crashes with less than an hour of playtime total). So, I held off on playing hoping for a patch. The patch never happened and it didn't seem to be a widespread issue. So, thinking it might be something on my end, I started messing around and found the likely cause of the crashes. Turns out the game really doesn't like RivaTuner Statistics Server, which MSI Afterburner uses for its on-screen display. Switched back to EVGA Precision (not sure why I had switched in the first place), which no longer uses RTSS, and it stopped crashing. Oh well, at least I figured it out eventually... Anyway, I really hope they'll bring Lara Croft GO to Steam soon. From what I've heard, it's a huge improvement over this one and I'm definitely down for more of this. Likewise the upcoming Deus Ex GO, although in that case I mostly just hope they won't take two fucking years to port it like they did with Hitman. But man, now I really feel like playing some proper Hitman. Ideally, I'd upgrade my intro pack for the new one and play that but it's still 60 bucks and I just can't drop that much on a game right now. Maybe I'll just reinstall Blood Money or Absolution.

Alright, so I'm halfway through Battle Tendency. I'm definitely enjoying it a lot more than I did last time and I kinda want to say it's better than Phantom Blood (the last few eps were definitely better than anything in Phantom Blood), but I dunno, something still feels a bit off. It just doesn't have the same momentum, for some reason. It doesn't have that "oooh gotta put the next one on right away!" factor that most great animes have. Like I said the other day, I pretty much binge watched the entirety of Phantom Blood in a single night. And I'm pretty sure I watched like 10 episodes of One Piece in a single day at least twice. But after about a week I'm still only halfway through Battle Tendency. It's great but I usually end up watching no more than a couple eps every day. It's like a book that's a good read but that's way too easy to put down, if that makes any sense. I totally get the Joseph = favorite JoJo thing, though. I have no idea about future JoJos, obviously, but he's definitely a way more fun protagonist than Jonathan.

Re:Xenoverse. Alright, so, turns out once you get Super Saiyan (if you're playing as a Saiyan) as well as at least one good ultimate attack, the game gets significantly more manageable. My new strategy is: 1) hit them until my ki meter is full 2) Super Saiyan! 3) MAKANKOSAPPO!! MAKANKOSAPPO!! MAKANKOSAPPO!! MAKANKOSAPPO!! MAKANKOSAPPO!! (and so on) 4) repeat That brilliant strategy has allowed me to power through the Cell, Android and Buu sagas without too much trouble. Also, about the random drops, turns out it's not as bad as it sounds. Most of them have specific requirements for them to drop and I think some of them (mainly the moves and power-ups) are guaranteed to drop once you meet the requirement. The only thing I've had to actually farm for was Vegeta's battle suit, and that was only because I really wanted it for my character. Each piece drops separately and the chest one had a much lower drop rate. That wasn't super fun. But more important stuff like super moves or transformations like Super Saiyan have always dropped the first time I completed the requirements.

If you loved it, you should definitely check out the DLC then. Well, the first two about Kidman. They're pretty good. You can skip the last one, it's kinda shit.

If you liked Limbo, it's really a no-brainer. It's the same core game but improved in every imaginable way. ------------ Titan Souls. I recently realized that I bought a few indies over the past 6 months or so and haven't really played any of them, whether due to lack of time or just because I bought them when I was already busy with other games. Decided to do Titan Souls first, mostly because I had actually been looking forward to it since way before release. It's kinda like if Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls had a retro baby. It's pretty great! You only have one arrow to shoot (if you miss you gotta pick it back up) but all the bosses die in one hit, so figuring out how to open them up becomes a bit of a puzzle. I ended up playing through the entire thing in one sitting, which took about 4 hours to beat the game and then another 2 to get what they're calling the "Truth Ending". That second one was some serious End of Evangelion shit. Like, wut. Overall, it was pretty much as good as I hoped it would be. This is one of those "Why the hell did I wait so long to play this?!" kinda game. Hell, I'm pretty sure I got it from a Humble Bundle and now I kinda regret not buying it day one. I'd really love to keep at it and go for all the achievements, especially since the game encourages replays by unlocking a bunch of different modes when you beat it, but holy shit some of them look fucking impossible. Like, beating the game in 20 mins. There's also one for doing it in one-life mode. I mean, come the fuck on, I died like 500 times... Also, since I remembered seeing this not long ago: It's been a while since I played the demo but I'm pretty sure it isn't in the actual game. Like, the content is there but not in that same configuration. IIRC, it's a few bosses from the very first area but placed in what I guess you'd call the game's main hub, which is the largest open space in the entire game. I vaguely recall what you're describing and the actual game isn't like that at all. Each area has its own checkpoint and it's never more than a 5-10 seconds walk to any of the bosses. Don't know if that'll be enough to change your mind but, for what it's worth, it never felt tedious to me. Anyway, think I might do Hyper Light Drifter next. That one looks pretty rad, too.

Inside. I liked Limbo and the trailers for this looked pretty cool, so naturally it was on my radar. Unfortunately, it came out at a time when I was busy with other stuff and simply couldn't justify the impulse purchase. Fast forward to last night, I notice a friend of mine is playing it on Steam. A few hours later, I receive a gift copy and my friend's all "Holy shit! Holy shit! You gotta play this!" This fucking game kept me up until like 4h30AM to finish it and then until 6AM to get the secret ending. I woke up at 4PM because of this fucking game. For the most part, it plays exactly like Limbo. You play a little boy going through a weird and sometimes creepy world doing simple puzzle platforming. Limbo's greatest strength was it's incredible atmosphere and Inside somehow manages to blow it out of the water in that regard. The puzzles are a little easier but it also does a few more unique and interesting things, which balances it out very well. Then there's the last section of the game. I haven't talked to my friend since shortly after starting the game but I have to assume his "Holy shit! Holy shit!" was in reference to that. It's fucking crazy and amazing and one of the weirdest and most creative thing I've ever seen in a puzzle platformer. That section alone makes it worth playing the game. It's just that fucking good.

Yeah, the side-missions I mentioned do have random drops attached to them. It's mostly clothing, items and special moves (but none of the big ones). So, if you want to learn, for example, Piccolo's beam attack, that's not a drop, you just need to train with him. I've been mostly ignoring them so far and I really don't feel like I've missed out on anything significant. I really wish I could get the Saiyan armor without those goofy looking shoulder pads, though... As for the online, apparently it was pretty bad at launch but it sounds like they improved it quite a bit. I haven't had any issues connecting or anything. The only online-related "issue" I encountered is that the player population is a bit low so long after launch, so finding online matches can be a bit difficult. And yeah, Xenoverse 2 is coming in October. If they can fix the issues this one has, it could be pretty damn good. There's definitely a solid foundation here. Not sure about the story, though. This one has you playing through the main story arcs but there's a reason for it. Depending on where the plot goes, I could see Xenoverse 2 going in a completely new direction. I mean, it would be pretty dumb to redo the same thing all over again.

Yeah, at this point the only reason to play the original is if you're actually looking to play for a retro FPS with a completely dated UI. --- As for me, I've been playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse on and off this week. So far, I'm of two minds about it. It's a pretty solid brawler and if you're into Dragon Ball it's just pure joy to play. Having your own created character join into all the big fights from the DBZ story is way more fun than I would've expected. And there's a pretty decent race selection, too. If I could just power through the story, I probably would have finished it by now. Oh and that opening is so good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWatw8ZkWXI The problem is that they decided to make it insanely difficult, for some fucking reason. You'll play a few story missions without any problems and suddenly you'll get your ass absolutely handed to you to the point where you literally don't stand a chance. And it's not just skills, it's numbers. The game has RPG mechanics, so it's actually possible to be straight up unable to deal damage to an opponent. So, now you need to go grind side-missions to level up, which gets a little boring since they're so repetitive. It's a shame because it could've easily been the best Dragon Ball game I've ever played. But it's just way too grindy for that. Come to think of it, it could make for a pretty decent podcast game. I'm a couple months behind on Podquisition, I could use this game to catch up lol.

I finished the first arc of One Piece a few days ago, so after like 60 eps I wanted to take a break and watch something else. Checked out a few things but nothing really clicked, so I said fuck it and restarted JoJo. Wrapped up Phantom Blood earlier tonight and it's still good. So good I almost watched the entire thing in one sitting last night but it was already 4AM and I didn't want to stay up too late. It also made me realize another reason why I initially liked it more than Battle Tendency. Dio is such a gigantic fucking asshole, it's actually kind of hilarious. It's basically impossible not to despise him. You just want to reach into your screen and fucking strangle that motherfucker. That's the best kind of villain! The pillar dudes or whatever they're called from Battle Tendency were just so boring compared to him. Anyway, I should be starting Battle Tendency soon, maybe later tonight. I really hope I'll like it more this time but if not, meh, it's not that long until I can finally start Stardust Crusaders, so whatever.

The Room. Really neat little puzzle game. It's very short but who cares at that price. The second one just came out on Steam and I'm really tempted to grab it right away. Especially since the flavor text (can't really call it a story since it's so minimal) was actually pretty intriguing.

I wasn't sure whether to post this in here or in the "okay movie" thread but fuck it, I enjoyed it so it's happening here. Finally got around to watching Batman v Superman last night. I was watching it with a friend of mine who's a huge comic book nerd and had already seen it twice in theaters, so about halfway through I had to ask him if it turned to complete shit in the second half or something because so far it was pretty alright. Not particularly great or anything but definitely a decent watch and certainly not the absolutely miserable experience the internet's made it out to be. Worth nothing that this was the Ultimate cut and not the theatrical one. Based on a handful of scenes that my friend pointed out as not being in the theatrical cut, I can kinda see how some stuff might've seemed nonsensical or confusing. Like, it's kinda mind-boggling that some of these scenes were cut because they provide either character motivations or the logic behind other scenes. I don't know if it'll be enough to change the mind of someone who's already seen and hated it, but for a first viewing I thought it was pretty enjoyable.

Zero Escape Vol. 3: Zero Time Dilemma. I still can't get over the fact that this game almost didn't happen. That just might've been the worst unresolved cliffhanger I would've ever experienced. Thankfully, we avoided that darkest of timelines and the game did get made. All things considered, it was a pretty satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. There were a few things we'd heard while the game was in development that I wasn't exactly stoked about. For one, the inclusion of an RNG element to the game, which seemed like a very weird decision. There was also a small worry based on what they showed early on that the setting wouldn't live up to what the ending of Virtue's Last Reward had built up. Finally, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the switch to full cutscenes rather than the usual VN presentation. Really glad to say I was wrong on all counts. Well, mostly. The game is much shorter than VLR and most of the scenes (even the ending) feel a lot briefer than they were in previous games. That had to have been a result of using full cutscenes (possibly also budget related). It also doesn't introduce many new concepts and instead mostly focuses on wrapping up loose ends from the first two games. But honestly, I didn't feel like the game suffered from any of that. At least, I didn't personally had any issues with the final result. Game was definitely worth the 3 years wait. It's good to finally have closure on this series but at the same time I'm a little sad to see it end. Hopefully whatever Uchikoshi makes next will be just as good. In the meantime, I'll be eagerly anticipating Danganronpa V3. Oh and the Steam releases of 999 and VLR, too. It's gonna be good to finally have the entire series on a single platform.

Yeah, you definitely need a very high tolerance for cutesy anime shit to enjoy the Neptunia games. If you find that stuff even remotely annoying, steer clear, those games aren't for you. If not, and if you also enjoy meta gaming humor a la Disgaea, then they might be worth a look. I'm not sure I see where the FF similarity comes from, though, as they are very basic RPGs and the story is told entirely through static portraits and text boxes like VNs. There's not even an overworld or anything like that, you go to places by selecting them on a world map and they're mostly small-ish dungeon-like maps that (at least in the first one) get a lot of reuse. Mainly, it's the combat system that I find most enjoyable in them. It's Trails-like where you run around (mostly) freely within the combat area and aim your attacks using visual indicators. Like, say your attack hits all enemies in a straight line of a certain width. Well, you're gonna want to position yourself to hit the enemies at just the right angle so that your attack will hit as many of them as possible.