danielpholt

Issues was the wrong word. The game is just not for me at the end of the day.

I've been plugging away at Dark Souls Remastered on the Switch. Firstly, it's a really solid port, and plays pretty well on the Switch. The issue I'm having is that whilst I loved Elden Ring, Dark Souls Remastered is, at its core a 10 year old game with a lick of paint thrown on top. That's not to say it's bad, far from it. I can certainly see the attraction, but I think it's all just a bit too raw for me. I loved Elden Ring, and whilst I didn't expect that from DSR, I also wasn't expecting everything to be as ....(word here?) as it is. This hasn't put me off from trying Bloodborne or Sekiro however. And with both of those games being more modern, I think a few of the issues I've had with DSR might be ironed out. Maybe.

Escape Academy Great premise, middling execution. Maybe that's a little harsh? I dunno. This game feels like it would be better as a 2d adventure game, instead of this slightly janky 3d thing. I'm about half way through and I'm not sure if I'm going to finish it.

It's not that hard when you admit you're not going to commit to a game you're no longer enjoying. Neon White, Stanley Parable, Bugsnax and Disk Room have all been brushed aside in the last month alone. I just don't have the time to persist with games I'm not getting anything out of. Embrace the cull!

Dark Souls Remastered I've cleared my backlog and so it's finally time to jump into this. My only other experience with this sort of game is Elden Ring, and whilst I know the two games are likely to be significantly different, I think I enjoy that core experience, so I should be fine with it. I'm playing on Switch, which is probably not the ideal way to experience it, but you know...portability.

Cuphead's Delicious Last Course It's more Cuphead. It's excellent. 'Nuff said.

To be fair I very nearly made that mistake when searching for this book.

Honestly, its mainly pattern recognition. Once you get the moves down it's just a case of executing on it. If I can beat it, you should be fine.

The Quarry Solid entry into Supermassives catalogue. It makes some nice changes to the overall structure but certainly doesn't reinvent the wheel. The plot is solid enough, and the game looks fantastic but...........man the game just ends. Which I guess is a product of the choices I made along the way but holy fuck talk about an underwhelming conclusion.

The Quarry The folks who made Until Dawn are back with what is largely their first 'traditional' offering in years. No weird multi-screen gaming experiences, or 6-monthly released anthology's here, just a bunch of dumb-but-sexy-teens making typical dumb-but-sexy-teen like errors in judgement, only this time we're away at summer camp. I'm only a few hours in, but what I've played so far has been a welcome return to a formula I really enjoy, with a tiny bit more work thrown into the overall look and feel of the game; the teens have emotions and the camp has god-rays and soft lighting. To be fair, they've clearly been working on their facial tech. The Quarry is a noticeable improvement on their previous offerings. They've still not got the eyes or the teeth quite right, but everything else looks absolutely incredible.

I've hit a bit of a wall in it myself. I just don't have the skill to get passed the level I'm stuck on, and because it allows almost no room to fudge it, it's basically over for me. I may still return to it after I've finished The Quarry, but I'm a little disappointed in how rigid it feels, especially in those latter levels.

Yeah I'm not sure if maybe there's another book in the US that sounds similar to Seven deaths, so they threw in the added half to try and make the name less likely to confuse?

Been on something of a reading blitz since the turn of the year. I've read: Leadership: In Turbulant Times - Doris Kearns Goodwin The book tells the stories of four presidents, Lincoln, TDR, FDR and LBJ from their first political awakenings to their greatest moments. For a book about 4 dead guys, I found it pretty interesting, and I learned some new stuff. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Harcastle - Stuart Turton Recommended to me by a friend, and Christopher Plante of Polygon/Vox/Besties fame. It's a novel about a man who relives the same day over and over again until he can figure out what's going on inside this super turn of the centuryesque manor house. It reads like a video game. Highly recommended. The Stranger Times - C.K. McDonnell I'm a big fan of Douglas Addams, and whilst this isn't that....it's trying to be. For the most part it's pretty funny. There's some fun characters to be around and the plot is ..........fine I guess. If you've got nothing else to read and you don't mind throwing a few hours on a book you'll likely forget about after the fact, then this might be worth your time. Erubus: The Story of a Ship - Michael Palin Erubus was one of the two ships lost during arguably the greatest maritime mystery of all time; the Franklin Expedition. The book tells the tale of the ship from the moment of its construction to the moment it was rediscovered a few years ago, laying at the bottom of the arctic ocean. Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class - Owen Jones I don't *always* agree with Owen on everything, but his critique of the way our country looks on the working class is as relevant today as it was when this book was published during the opening years of the David Cameron years. This book made me angry, as it should anybody who considers themselves on the lower end of the british class spectrum. The Shrinking Man - Robert Matheson I consider I Am Legend to be my favourite book, so I went into The Shrinking Man with some pretty lofty expectations, and whilst it didn't quite hit the highs I'd built up in my mind, It's still a pretty good read. Lots of interesting ideas and some light social commentary thrown in for good measure. It gets a bit bogged down in the middle, but towards the final third it really picks up again I could barely put it down for the final 200 pages.

I think the game expects you to run into a brick wall from time to time. I found a pretty good set of runes (I forget what they're called at this point) and built my runs around those. Once I knew I could stack the things I was good with, everything opened up. I love Hades, but I I think that love is something of an anomaly; normally this game would push me so hard away that I wouldn't even bother looking at it. For whatever reason, be it the time (COVID), the place (largely in bed, on my Switch) or the structure (quick, parent-friendly runs) the game just captured me completely.

Each to their own I guess. Did you mix up your builds and try different modifiers? The core loop is pretty similar all the way through, but working on your loadout and mixing up the different sliders adds some interesting twists to keep it fresh.

I wonder if it was a time and place thing. I had very little interest in Prey until I finally gave it a look, and then for the week I was playing it, it's all I thought about. Neon White The first few hours are great. However, I feel like I've hit a pretty nasty difficulty spike where the game goes from being 'learn the route and execute' to more of a 'you need to be pinpoint in your accuracy and timing if you hope to get through this', and playing on Joycons...that's tough at the best of times. Going to keep going. I may end up jumping off of this however, which is a shame because those opening few hours are magnificent.

I bounced off of Mooncrash so hard. Prey had me from moment one but Mooncrash was like pulling teeth. Hope you stick with it. Also your Hades take is personally offensive to me.

Neon White It's sort of a card based action platformer thing, actually getting some Boomerang X vibes off it. I'm not very far in, but what I've played so far has felt really good. There appears to be an overworld area where you can talk to your fellow....Neon people, build relationships and possibly upgrade your gear, but I'm not far enough into that to truly understand what it is. For those interested, it's from the guy that made Donut County, although it feels like a more more mature game that than, at least so far (or maybe my mind has been broken through being on the internet for 20 years). If that sounds up your street then it's available on Switch and PC for £20.

I think the game wants the player to really 'learn' how the combat system works, and if you can find the time to do that then it could be satisfying, unfortunately the game doesn't need the player to do that and so most people won't bother. Why spend the time to learn how the system works when you could just slash the sword button until you win.

Spent a bit of time this morning working my way through some of the smaller reveals over the last week. Here are some of my favouries.

Lego Builders Journey A neat puzzle game that loses its steam once you get over the initial thrill of playing with LEGO on a screen. It has its moments, but I got to the end and I'm glad I won't be going back to it. Trek To Yomi Ultimately the combat never felt all that good to me, and for a game where 95% of your time is spent doing said combat, it falls a little flat. That's not to say I don't think there's depth there, but I found it more frustrating than anything. It looks nice I guess.

I also bought this.

Should keep me busy for the next few weeks....