TheMightyEthan

So apparently all the stuff with Assassin's Creed not having female characters really was/is just straight-up sexism. Which we already knew, but it's nice to see it confirmed. Apparently in Origins originally they were going to have Bayek get killed and his wife be the player character, but Hascoët thought that wouldn't sell. And in Odyssey Kassandra was going to be the only PC until he made them add her brother. Also, lol @ marketing not thinking a female PC would sell. Horizon: Zero Dawn says hi.

I'm guessing those two were pilot projects to test the waters, and I don't know about Catherine but P4G has obviously been a resounding success, so hopefully they'll start bringing more stuff over.

It's really not fast though, it's in line with what they've been doing for a long long time.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter should be very aware that I am playing Ghost of Tsushima.

Apparently it's more popular than they predicted. I've also seen more discussion/screenshots of it on my Twitter feed than any game for a long time (even ignoring my own screenshot spam). I also prefer to get physical copies whenever possible, just because any more I rarely replay games, and so I like being able to trade them in after I finish them.

I'm three hours in and agree with everything you just said.

I love the confusion about which way to put the CPU in. Very relatable.

I've got a $10 PSN card that I would really like to convert to $10 in Nintendo credit, if anyone would like to do that. Probably the easiest way would be to buy a $10 Nintendo code from like Amazon and we can just exchange codes.

I also just got back with my copy of Ghost of Tsushima. Super stoked.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Actually bought this last weekend but forgot to post. My wife and I went halvsies on it, since she always loved Melee. It's a lot of fun, don't know why I waited so long to pick it up. Then just today (and the thing that reminded me to post that) is this: It's a hub that lets you connect GameCube controllers to your Switch. I was looking at buying more controllers so we could play with my sisters and people, but it would be insanely expensive to get enough, but I already have four GameCube controllers, and this thing was only $10. Considering the cheapest Switch controllers I could find (that were any good) were $25 each, this is a damn good deal. Combined with my Switch Pro Controller and two Joycons we've got enough for 7 players now.

Honestly, the biggest problem with the "trilogy" is it wasn't given to anyone. They made TFA with no plan as to what would happen after, then they gave TLJ to someone entirely different, who had an entirely different idea about where it should go, then they gave ROS to the first guy again. Calling it a trilogy is generous, because that implies some kind of overarching direction. The way they did it it's like they were trying to make it an incoherent mess.

Yeah, you basically can't 100% the compendium on a first playthrough due to money shortages.

Humans saw the disaster coming, and what was needed to prevent it, and collectively said, "Meh."

I don't have a lot to say in response to that right now, but I wanted to say I read it and it has me thinking.

Yeah, I've tried Dark Souls 1 & 2 and bounced off both. I've got the Star Wars one on my list so that'll probably be the one I try at some point.

Yeah, that sounds like a good one to start with if I'm gonna buy one, but I already own 3 so...

?

Maybe I should give 3 another shot. It might just have been one of those things where I wasn't in quite the right mood for it when I tried it.

As someone who has tried and bounced off of Far Cry 1, 2, and 3, is there anything in the later iterations that is likely to draw me in?

I keep wanting to play Souls games, but I bounce off them every time I try. Idk why they keep calling to me. Why I came here: Close to the Sun It's a Bioshock-lite game, where you're exploring a giant ship where all the worlds scientists have gathered to work for the benefit of mankind without the constraints of national governments. Shockingly, something terrible has happened, your sister is involved, and you're trying to find out what it was. It wasn't very good, and was pretty boring. There's no combat, but there are a few scenes throughout where you have to run away from various things, but they're not very well executed and end up being tedious rather than engaging. The rest of the game mostly just has you moving through environments, doing what people on the other end of a radio tell you to do (sound familiar?). There's basically no "investigation" as far as gameplay goes, and barely any puzzle solving. It's basically a walking simulator where they tried to add a little bit more in terms of mechanics, but didn't really commit to any of it. 2/5

Abzu This was a nice, short, calming experience. Gave me heavy Flower vibes. There's collectibles and things that you can go back and get, but I played it on the Epic store so there are no achievements to motivate me to actually do that, but I did really enjoy the story mode. 4/5

I'm upgrading my score of TLoU2 from a 2/5 to a 4/5, for reasons posted in the TLoU2 thread.

I have some follow-up to my thoughts I posted in the the Games You Beat thread, but I decided to bring them over here instead of continuing to clog that thread. I was listening to the What's Good Games TLoU2 spoilercast, and one of them said something that really clicked with me. She said that even though this game has its flaws, it made her really think about its themes and analyze it in a literary way that no other game ever has before. Obviously this isn't the first game to do that, or even the first major game (Spec Ops: The Line comes to mind), but I think she's largely right. I still stand by my criticisms and everything I said in that thread, but I don't think I was giving it enough credit for the fact that it did a good enough job exploring its themes that I was able to say it fucked up that exploration. 99% of games, and especially AAA games, I just engage with on a surface level, but this one actually got me to think about the points it was trying to make and engage with them in an actual thoughtful way. I think it's kind of an uncanny valley-like effect. Most games are such thematic messes from a literary point of view, or else just so shallow in that regard, or both, that you don't even bother thinking about them. So the fact that TLoU2 did a good enough job exploring its themes that I felt the urge to discuss them, even though that discussion was about how badly they were executed, is a win for games, and is pushing the medium forward. They definitely deserve credit for that.

It's been a long time since I played, but IIRC you raise your shield at the last second to parry, it staggers the enemy, and then you attack while they're open.

Yeah, as far as the non-fighting bits, I don't know if I just wasn't in the right mood for it or what, but it was starting off way too slow for me.