TheMightyEthan

Ghostwire: Tokyo This game was pretty good, actually. The game is really pretty, especially with raytracing on (mmmm, reflections...), and Tokyo is super detailed. The focus on yokai and kami and Japanese mythology in general was also a nice change from the kinds of urban fantasy you normally see in games. The combat itself was fine, nothing amazing but nothing bad either (once I got the control settings properly adjusted), and the idea of fighting these spirits while trying to rescue your sister from a crazy guy who zapped everyone in Tokyo was pretty neat. I had fun with it while it lasted, and it was pretty short (about 10 hours) so it didn't overstay its welcome. I do think there's way too much open world nonsense, but you can safely skip pretty much all of it (I barely did any) and the result is a pretty cool singleplayer game. Grade: B

I didn't even know there was a GBA version until now, and looking it up it has some control and QoL improvements, so I'm kind of annoyed I didn't play that one instead.

I've been trying to avoid walkthroughs as much as possible, because when I start doing that it really exacerbates the "just going through the motions" feeling, so I've been trying to only do that when I'm truly stuck. I don't want to sound like I'm really down on the game, I can tell I would have found it completely amazing when it came out, just that was 30 years ago. I'm honestly still really impressed with it, and I did enjoy it for a good chunk of time, I'm just starting to lose that enjoyment as I get to the end of the game. If I do end up finishing it it'll just be because I'm so close. Three more dark world dungeons and then the final dungeon left.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past I have never actually played this game before, despite considering myself quite the Zelda fan. I'd started it, but never made it farther than beating the first dungeon. I wanted another handheld game though, and for whatever reason this called to me. I'm most of the way through it now, and I can clearly see how groundbreaking it would have been when it was new, but it's definitely showing its age. Little stuff, like the hitbox being wonky on the sword slashes, in addition to bigger stuff like the design often being simultaneously simplistic and obtuse. I'm not sure if I'll actually finish it or not, I've gotten to the point where I'm not really having fun anymore, just going through the motions. I thought that yesterday too though, but then a couple hours later went back and beat the fourth dark world dungeon, so we'll see. I definitely think it could benefit from a remake ala Link's Awakening though, to make it feel that little bit better to play. Side note: I tip my cap to anyone who beat this legitimately back in the day (or now). I've been playing on an emulator, so I have the benefit of save states, and even then some of this stuff has been ridiculous. The last two bosses I resorted to an infinite health cheat code just cause I didn't want to keep retrying over and over and over.

What kind of game is that? It's it like a turn based rpg?

I agree wholeheartedly. I was shocked the trailers didn't spoil that Especially since it happens like 1/4 of the way through the movie.

lol, I've had this one since 2010, so I don't think an extended warranty would have helped.

Logitech G703 baby! ...what?

For the last few months my mouse has been randomly double-clicking when I only single-clicked, but I'm too attached to the DPI button to replace it.

Oh no no no, you have it all wrong, read any US Supreme Court opinion and you will see that they are not a political body, they are just following the law, politics are checked at the door...

True, but this isn't a constitutional democracy, it's a hereditary nobility, and in actuality the decision would be down to what the MC wanted to do, he's just being nice by letting the others have a say. They're not even an actual official council or anything, just your friends whose opinions you value.

Hopefully my grandchildren will enjoy it when it arrives.

I finally got started on Assassin's Creed Valhalla after getting it for $7 from Gamefly. It sure is an Assassin's Creed game.

Dr. Strange - In the Multiverse of Madness Not a lot to say on this one, it's a Marvel movie, if you like those you'll probably like this one, and if you don't you won't. I liked it. One thing in particular that I liked was that

The Gunk This is a fun little indie adventure platformer with a message that boils down to "destroying the planet = bad." Basically you and your partner land on this alien planet to investigate a mysterious energy signature, and discover everything is covered with this weird Gunk! And conveniently you have a vacuum for an arm! So you start sucking up the Gunk, and as you clear out each area you restore life to it and everything gets all green and pretty. And basically that's the game. There's some extremely light puzzle solving and combat, but pretty much you're vacuuming up Gunk. It sounds simple, and it is, but it's also very satisfying. It could have stood to change things up a little more, but the whole game is only like 4-5 hours so even if it gets kind of repetitive it doesn't overstay its welcome. I enjoyed my time with it, and it's on Game Pass, so if you are a subscriber I'd recommend checking it out, but I wouldn't recommend buying it. Grade: B-

Triangle Strategy This was a fun little TBS RPG. I also loved the political intrigue, and how your choices affect it. It's basically like a PG-13 Game of Thrones, and it works surprisingly well. Some aspects of the political situation seem overly simplistic or naive, but if you accept those things as the driving factors then the actions of the individual groups make sense. The combat was what you might expect from a turn-based strategy RPG, it did its job fine, but wasn't anything standout. The real star of the show is the story and your path through it. The way you make story choices is interesting. You have your party, the main members of which are essentially a governing council, and they vote on what to do. Before each vote you can talk to them and try to sway them one way or the other to influence how the vote goes, via a three-pronged persuasion scale, called your "convictions", and additional options are opened by finding information in the world. The one gripe I have about it is even though you're the leader, you don't actually get a vote yourself, you can only try to persuade the others, which seems weird. Overall though it's a really cool idea, and I hope to see it expanded upon in other games. Grade: B

This country is so fucked up. I expected this though, it's why I'm already scheduled to get a vasectomy this summer.

Bridge Constructor Portal This game is pretty much what it sounds like, a bridge building game but now you're thinking with portals. It's very excellently designed, with the difficulty curve smoothly increasing throughout the game without ever actually getting frustrating, and the writing lives up to the Portal legacy. It's everything I hoped it would be. Also, I played it all on my phone via Xcloud with my Razer Kishi, and it's the perfect game for that. Great: A+

You do unlock permanent upgrades for the various guns, just not proficiency, which isn't weapon specific, and you get the Ether that carries over and you can spend on permanent item unlocks, but I get what you're saying. I think the difference for me was I very quickly gitted gudder at Returnal, so I reliably got farther each run, but with Hades I didn't feel like I was increasing in skill, and the 1% God mode boost each run wasn't enough to compensate for that, so I felt like I was barely making any progress.

It's a lot like the house sections, and makes about the same amount of sense as those.

I can't really blame anybody who feels that way, I had the same issue with Hades, even with god mode on.

Returnal: Tower of Sisyphus Goddamn this game just plays so good. The Tower is basically a more contained version of the main game, just without branching paths and the ability to go backwards. It's really reminding me just how solid the moment-to-moment gameplay in this game is, it's such a joy to play, and the added story content is keeping me hooked.

Yeah, this is my problem with "guide dangit" elements in games, once you go to a guide the first time it's like a dam's been broken and it's so easy to fall into just following the guide. I had a similar problem with some of Elden Ring's sidequests, which is why I wish the game gave you just a little more to go on. I was actually reading an article yesterday about the new Monkey Island game, and it sounds like they really understand that, and are adding a hint system to try to avoid players going to guides in the first place.

https://blog.playstation.com/2022/04/25/variable-refresh-rate-support-for-ps5-is-rolling-out-this-week/ VRR! Fucking finally! Now I can play Ghostwire...

Aperture Desk Job This is a little tutorial for the Steam Deck, but you can play it on any computer. I'd heard it was funny, so I gave it a shot, and it was! As a game it really wasn't anything, it was a controller tutorial, but it was pretty funny, and it's like 20 minutes long, so I still recommend it if you like the Portal universe. Grade: C as a game, A+ for writing