TheMightyEthan

Back in San Andreas days it was fine, because at that point "open worlds" were so small that you could see places that in-world should have been hundreds of miles away, but our open worlds are big enough now to give an adequate sense of scale*, they don't need to be bigger. *I say this, but actually I felt like Death Stranding's world didn't convey the scale it was supposed to represent. Looking at the map it's supposed to be the entirety of the US, but it feels more like 1 state. Like it's Colorado. That was the only part of that game that bothered me.

I had been turned off by the mythical elements before, but I've been feeling in the mood for some AC recently.

And the Assassin's Creed Odyssey Season Pass, because I have no self control.

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order was on sale at Gamestop on PS4 for cheaper than it's ever been on PC, so I bit. Also finally got to use my store credit.

That game was so pretty, but just not fun. ?

Apparently MS considered releasing Infinite in "pieces", but ultimately decided they would delay the whole thing so they don't dilute its launch. This is also an interesting tidbit: Hard to say for sure, but that reads to me like he's saying "Look, we wanted to say this early so that if someone decides without Halo on Series X then they'd rather get a PS5 at launch, we want them to have that option," which is really cool of them. I like Playstation better than Xbox because of the games, but as a company Microsoft is a lot better for consumers right now than Sony is.

What about PC players like me telling you it's just another launcher? ?

Preordered Cyberpunk 2077 because it's only $50 on Amazon for some reason. And they've already announced free upgrades to the next-gen version for current-gen owners, so I'm set.

Apparently they're also releasing an Ultimate Edition on console at the same time, and that's the only edition that gets a next-gen upgrade. If you own the original version, or even original plus expansion pass you're just SOL. That part doesn't affect me personally, since I have it on PC, but holy shit that's a colossal fuck you to your early adopters.

I'm not tagging this because it's only spoilers for the first game: To me it doesn't matter whether Ellie would have sacrificed herself willingly for the cure (though I agree she probably would have), the Fireflies didn't even give her the option, and that puts them in the wrong. About the ending of Part 2:

My guess is the graphics backlash was the straw that broke the camel's back. They knew they were having trouble, but they also knew they had no choice but to make it for launch, and then the backlash made them realize the problems they were having were actually going to be a big issue.

Yeah, I wouldn't have called it grindy, but it was very samey throughout. I liked the different weapons, but every enemy felt basically the same to fight, and every fight was just "you're in a room/on a platform, kill everything".

Finished Ratchet and Clank last night. It was fine. The gameplay itself was just okay, a little overly simple, but the game overall was polished to a shine. It honestly felt like a Nintendo game in a lot of ways. I don't regret playing it. 3/5

This pretty well sums up how I feel right now...

Yeah, Halo was the only big one. They have nothing else. To be fair though, pretty sure Sony would be in the same boat if Miles Morales got delayed. Other news, looks like SeX is launching November 6.

Xbox Series X officially launching in November and HALO INFINITE DELAYED TO NEXT YEAR. It's completely insane that they're launching without one single big exclusive.

Sweet Jesus, I liked that game but there was no way I was going to put in the effort for the platinum. Props.

Got a year of PS+ for $32 on cdkeys. Fall Guys is what pushed me to it.

Yeah, that game looks like a lot of fun, it's actually got me tempted to re-sub to PS+.

Semi-related: the archers not always calling their shots like they're supposed to was one of like two complaints I had about the combat in that game. It gets especially irritating once you get the thing that requires you to get kills without taking damage.

Do it now!

Ghost of Tsushima What an absolutely fantastic game. Just wow. The combat could deal with some slight tweaking (main thing being sometimes I know I hit the button to dodge/parry/block but Jin just doesn't for some reason), but even that is pretty great overall. Best Assassin's Creed game since Black Flag, or possibly Brotherhood. 5/5 Also

One can dream.

xCloud is launching in beta on September 15, with over 100 streamable games, as part of Gamepass Ultimate. Even your saves will transfer back and forth between local and streaming sessions. We'll have to see how it performs, but I'm pretty sure they just put the nail in the coffin of me ever buying Xbox hardware again. Or probably a gaming PC for that matter. Oh, and unlike PS5, xCloud supports DS4. ?

That game is only exactly what it wants to be, but it bes it perfectly.