TheMightyEthan Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 FAR: Lone Sails This is a neat little game, where you're basically running a landship (yes!) and cruising across a desolate wasteland. You have to collect fuel to keep it running, but that becomes pretty trivial pretty quickly, so the main challenge revolves around clearing various obstacles that you encounter so you can keep on your way. My favorite part though was the soothing, almost-but-not-quite mindless rhythm of keeping the machine running when you're on flat ground. You set the throttle, clear the steam build-up, put fuel in the engine, reset the throttle, etc. It's very satisfying, and I wish there was an infinite mode where you could just do that forever. It's pretty short, but satisfying, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested. Grade: A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 23, 2022 Report Share Posted July 23, 2022 Yakuza 3 Remastered Thank fuck this is finally over. It took me like 8 months to get through the first half of this fucking game because of how frustrating the combat is. I'd play a chapter or two then a boss fight would make me lose my shit and I wouldn't touch the game for 2-3 months lol. I had this week off, though, and since Ghostwire: Tokyo is really more of a spooky night game, I figured I'd use this as an excuse to power through and finish this one during the day. The game overall isn't bad, though, and the combat issue was probably exacerbated by my playing it on hard but you can tell this was early in the series while it was still finding its footing. It's not as rough as the PS2 games but it's not quite at the smooth combat of Yakuza 0 yet either. Going back to this after playing Kiwami 1 and 2 is a bit of a shock. I don't know what they were thinking with these fucking enemies that block everything but it's just not fun. After a while I got the hang of it, though, and by the end of the game it wasn't too bad. I imagine levelling up helped as well. The story is pretty alright. Again, nowhere near as good as Yakuza 0 but I think I liked this one more than Yakuza Kiwami 2 in that regard. Maybe because it was smaller and more personal. It spends way too much time with Kiryu's kids, though. Like, I get what they were going for but after a while it starts to feel like pointless filler. Especially when you're basically at the end of the game and suddenly the game is like "You don't have to go do this important thing right away, just chill with your kids for a while. I'll let you know when you can go punch dudes again." Usually I go through these at a leisurely pace and fuck around in Kamurocho as much as possible but a friend actually bought me Yakuza 7 for my birthday last year so now I feel some pressure to just rush through the stories of each one so I can finally play it and not feel like an ingrate. At least I have my premium adventure save for when I'm ready to come back to this one and go achievement hunting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted July 23, 2022 Report Share Posted July 23, 2022 Yakuza 3 is definitely the low point of the series. I still wouldn't say 4 is as good as 0 or Kiwami 2, but it never felt like a total slog for me to get through like 3 did at least. Some think 5 is the best one. I wouldn't go that far but it probably is the best one that isn't 0 or 7. Yakuza 6 is divisive because it's a lot smaller in scope and less ambitious than 5 but I thought it was fine. I could see it being disappointing if you had just come off 5 and were waiting years for 6 to come out since it goes from 5 playable characters back to just Kiryu but it didn't really bother me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 23, 2022 Report Share Posted July 23, 2022 (edited) Smaller doesn't sound bad to me. At this point I almost feel like I have too much Yakuza to get through. That's a very good problem to have, don't get me wrong. But at my usual speed, I can spend close to 100 hours on each of these games and from what I've heard 5 starts to suffer from bloat so as far as I'm concerned it's a good thing that they knew to scale things back a bit. That being said, I really hope they're working on some kind of rerelease for those Samurai-era games. I wanna play them so bad... edit: Oh yeah, I finished Lego Builder's Journey as well. It's alright. As a tech showcase for ray-tracing it's incredible. @TheMightyEthanwasn't kidding when he said it was the best looking game he'd ever seen. But as a puzzle game I found it kinda lacking. All the levels are either obvious as shit or "I have literally no idea what you want from me" with basically nothing in-between. It's cute and short, though, so I don't regret the 10$ I spent on it. Edited July 23, 2022 by toxicitizen 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted July 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2022 2 hours ago, toxicitizen said: edit: Oh yeah, I finished Lego Builder's Journey as well. It's alright. As a tech showcase for ray-tracing it's incredible. @TheMightyEthanwasn't kidding when he said it was the best looking game he'd ever seen. But as a puzzle game I found it kinda lacking. All the levels are either obvious as shit or "I have literally no idea what you want from me" with basically nothing in-between. It's cute and short, though, so I don't regret the 10$ I spent on it. I agree with this. The first dozen levels felt fun and intriguing but as I inched towards the end they got repetitive and a little too ambiguous for my liking; often I'd find myself almost unable to see what I was doing too. I'm assuming that's a downside of the games use of lighting? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 23, 2022 Report Share Posted July 23, 2022 Elden Ring I'm on a roll with finishing long overdue games! I rushed the last few bosses with some summoned help just so I could at least wrap up my first playthrough. At least now I can remove the game from the backlog category at the top of my Steam library and move it to my achievement hunting category, where it won't be taunting me every time I open Steam. Not gonna jump into NG+ as I don't really feel like sinking dozens of hours into it right now. Besides, there's still a chunk of map that I haven't uncovered to the north and a few optional bosses I haven't done so I still have some stuff to do before NG+ anyway. Maybe I'll pick it back up once they announce some DLC or if/when that ray-tracing update manifests itself. Beyond that, it's honestly been too long for me to write any kind of extended thoughts about the game. It was great but at some point I just kinda bounced off of it. Not even sure why, tbh. First time it happens since the original Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. And at the time I had yet to beat any of these games so it wasn't exactly the same thing. 15 hours ago, danielpholt said: I agree with this. The first dozen levels felt fun and intriguing but as I inched towards the end they got repetitive and a little too ambiguous for my liking; often I'd find myself almost unable to see what I was doing too. I'm assuming that's a downside of the games use of lighting? Weird, can't say I've had that problem. Maybe a brightness issue on your end? the only times when things were too dark to see, there were flashlight blocks I could move to see what I was doing, so I assumed it was deliberate in those instances. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 24, 2022 Report Share Posted July 24, 2022 For me Lego Builder's Journey had several points where they would introduce a new mechanic and it would be this little flash of joy that would last for a few levels, but I agree that stuff tended to overstay its welcome and get repetitive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 25, 2022 Report Share Posted July 25, 2022 Ghostwire: Tokyo I didn't mean to finish all my ongoing games at the same time but here we are. To my surprise, I absolutely loved this one! I went in with pretty low expectations because it seemed to have come out and disappeared without leaving any kind of a mark. Also, it's not The Evil Within 3... It does feel like a direct successor to The Evil Within 2, though. TEW was a proper linear, survivor-horror game whereas TEW2, while still being a horror game, focused less on scares and took a more open-area approach to level design, with large zones full of collectibles and side-quests. And now we have Ghostwire: Tokyo, a full-on open-world game that discards horror entirely but keeps the otherworldly aesthetics and themes. In other words: I absolutely loved everything about the setting: the Japanese-style ghost stories, the yokais, the tanukis, the realistic rendition of Shibuya. Early on, just exploring the map, taking in the sights and wondering what weird shit I'd find around the next corner was a real treat. The only reason why it eventually felt less special was because the content started feeling a bit repetitive. But by that point I was mostly just indulging my inner completionist and trying to clear as much open-world stuff before going to do that main story mission that warned me it was the point of no return. So I guess the balance is just about right for someone that doesn't care about that. As someone that finds I just don't have the time or mental energy for open-world games these days (I still feel mentally scarred by Assassin's Creed Origin's map and its endless fucking quest markers), this game was perfect for me. It's open-world but with a map the fraction of the size of what's common these days. So everything ends up being close enough that I'd constantly get stuck in a loop where I'd spot a collectible on a roof and climb up to get it and would immediately spot 3 more nearby that I'd have basically no choice but to go for. So even though this game is like 8 hours long, my playtime when I finished it was 35 hours. It's not without issues, though. After a while, the side-quests get kinda samey. It also could've used the basic QoL feature of autosaving as soon as you grab/do something. I think it saves like every 5 mins or something so if you end up inadvertently jumping into a lethal combat encounter right after grabbing half a dozen spirits, you need to go get them again. Early on I thought the enemies were too spongey because they took forever to kill and I'd be constantly running backwards while shooting at them but I think that was just because I was playing on hard. It stopped being a problem after I levelled up a bit and spent some skill points. Plus, it forced me to learn to use all the tools at my disposal early on, which made the game way more fun even near the end. And by the end of the game I'd still need to be careful because being sloppy could easily lead to my death. So yeah, if you play this one I definitely recommend doing so on hard. It felt just right. At this point I think I want a sequel to this as much as I want The Evil Within 3. Tango is quickly becoming one of my favorite developers. Although apparently the next game by the director of TEW2 is "the complete opposite of horror", whatever the hell that means. So it may be a departure from what makes me love their games. In the meantime, I have to go finish collecting all those spirits because apparently I need to redo the ending after doing so. I'm assuming there's some kind of alternate or true ending? Also, I'm most of the way there already so I'll just go for all the achievements. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted July 26, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2022 As Dusk Falls I finished it (for real) this morning and I stand by the idea that it's one of my favourite games of the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 26, 2022 Report Share Posted July 26, 2022 I'm about to start book 2 chapter 2 and while I'm not yet as invested in this stuff as I was book 1, it's still good and I could see it getting there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 31, 2022 Report Share Posted July 31, 2022 Forza Horizon 5 Hot Wheels DLC Played this with my new racing wheel. I always thought they were neat but a little excessive for anyone besides real car enthusiasts, but it adds so much to the experience I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to playing racing games with a controller. As for the DLC itself, it was great, it adds back in a lot of the crazy over-the-top-ness that I thought was missing from the main game. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that I wish there was more content, which isn't much of a criticism. I do have a little bit of an issue with a couple of the criteria to unlock each new tier of car, but I muddled through. It was a little frustrating having to do the drift zones, but once I did them it didn't dampen the rest of the experience. Grade: A As Dusk Falls Holy shit this is great. If you're someone who likes choose your own adventure type games, like the Telltale or Supermassive games, this is right up your alley. It has a little bit less gameplay than those do, because you never actually control your character walking around a scene looking at things, but honestly that's an improvement IMO, I always found those sections annoying anyway. The writing and performances are great, and while the series-of-stills presentation may not be everyone's cup of tea (I've heard it described as the highest quality animatics ever made), I loved it. And that story, no spoilers, but damn. I really hope they make a sequel. Grade: A+ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted August 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2022 Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus It's an FMV game where you have to try and solve the murder of your Uncle Marcus (played by the same dude who played David Wallace in The Office). It took me about 5 hours from start to finish; unlocking all 6 endings along the way. The core gameplay is pretty simple. You'll watch the characters interact and then choose which way you want the conversation to go. Each time you complete a 'run' the story resets and you start it over again, maintaining the knowledge you've previously gained. Eventually you'll figure out enough clues to accuse someone of the act. Like I said, there's 6-7 endings, although only one of them is the true ending. Unfortunately I did end up googling how to finish the game, because the game can be a bit confusing with regards to signposting how to access those clues (it can be a bit hit-and-miss and there's no visible way to tell if you're going along the right path). So in conclusion, pretty enjoyable way to spend a few hours. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted August 1, 2022 Report Share Posted August 1, 2022 So it's like a roguelite whodunnit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted August 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2022 Nah there's no rougeish elements to it really. You complete the sequence over the course of 10-20 minutes and based on your choices you'll earn certain tidbits of information that goes towards solving the crime. Issue is that it's pretty hard to nail down the combination required to get some of the tougher items of information, especially with two specific characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted August 1, 2022 Report Share Posted August 1, 2022 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order As someone that's kind of over Star Wars and can't bring himself to care about any future movies or TV shows anymore, this one was surprisingly fun. I mean, I had heard it was good and it seemed like the kind of game I would enjoy, otherwise I wouldn't have given it a shot. But for the first few days of playing this, I was honestly kinda wishing I was still playing Ghostwire. It was just that kind of a game where I was vibing with it so much that just being in that world was fun for me. I think that combined with my current apathy for all things Star Wars would've made me bounce off of this game pretty hard if it hadn't been so freaking good. It was nice to play a game with Soulslike element but that's not actually a Soulslike. It's basically your typical third-person story-driven action game with set pieces and everything. Combat is just more lethal than usual and you can reset enemies at bonfires. That's not to say the game is especially difficult, though. I played on Jedi Master, which I'm assuming is supposed to be hard, and I was never really challenged except early on while I was still learning the mechanics. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I didn't really go into this looking for difficulty. I probably would've gone for Jedi Grandmaster if I'd known, though. A little more challenge than this would've been fine. Also, gotta love a game that doesn't waste your time with needlessly time-consuming achievements: You have to get every colletibles, secrets and enemy scans but most of it isn't obnoxiously easy to miss. I went out of my way to collect everything as I was going through the game and basically only had to spend an additional 30mins doing a post-game cleanup for the last few things I had missed. So yeah, I think I enjoyed this one enough that I might actually get the sequel day one. It was a pleasant surprise. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted August 2, 2022 Report Share Posted August 2, 2022 Good game. I share your Star Wars burnout, video games are the only thing from the franchise that gets me interested anymore. I still haven't even seen Episode IX. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted August 2, 2022 Report Share Posted August 2, 2022 1 hour ago, TheMightyEthan said: I still haven't even seen Episode IX. Believe me, you aren't missing much. Spoiler "TWO lightstabers?! AHHHH DARTH PLAGUEIS HELP MEEE!" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted August 2, 2022 Report Share Posted August 2, 2022 Episode IX is such a huge fucking pile of shit. I'm not even exaggerating when I say it's bordering on incoherent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted August 2, 2022 Report Share Posted August 2, 2022 I decided I wasn't going to see it when they gave it back to JJ Abrams because people hated what Rian Johnson had done with VIII. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted August 2, 2022 Report Share Posted August 2, 2022 2 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said: I decided I wasn't going to see it when they gave it back to JJ Abrams because people hated what Rian Johnson had done with VIII. Is that what happened? I thought they gave it to him after Colin Trevorrow was fired and/or left the project. It sounds like there was a ton of studio interference, though. Like, I'm not the biggest J.J. Abrams fan or anything but it is by far the worst thing he's ever done. I can't imagine even on a bad day he'd make something that fucking unwatchable unless he was forced to do dumb shit. Like, say... bring Palpatine back with no prior setup whatsoever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted August 2, 2022 Report Share Posted August 2, 2022 Oh yeah, I didn't mean that as a dig at Abrams, just that I really liked what Rian Johnson did with VIII, and they took it away from him because of the outcry over all the stuff I liked about it, so I had no interest in seeing whatever came after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted August 2, 2022 Report Share Posted August 2, 2022 Was Rian Johnson ever planned to direct Ep IX, though? Trevorrow was initially attached to direct but I don't remember Johnson ever being. I thought it just went directly to Abrams after Trevorrow left. Like, at this point it's likely not happening anymore but at the time Johnson was set to make his own trilogy. It would be weird to fire him from Ep IX over fan backlash but then give him his own trilogy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted August 3, 2022 Report Share Posted August 3, 2022 Maybe it was that they gave it back to Abrams instead of Trevorrow because of the backlash? Idk, it was a long time ago, I just remember that they changed something as a result of the backlash and as a result I stopped being interested in the next movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted August 3, 2022 Report Share Posted August 3, 2022 (edited) 13 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said: Maybe it was that they gave it back to Abrams instead of Trevorrow because of the backlash? Idk, it was a long time ago, I just remember that they changed something as a result of the backlash and as a result I stopped being interested in the next movie. Oh, I see. I never got the impression that Trevorrow departing had anything to do with the TLJ backlash but I never followed the situation that closely to begin with. Or I could just be misremembering. Edited August 3, 2022 by toxicitizen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted August 3, 2022 Report Share Posted August 3, 2022 Exapunks Now I've beat TWO Zachtronics games! (Opus Magnum was the other.) This game is so awesome. The way you're actually coding these little machines to go do your bidding, and hacking together really complex behaviors from really limited machines is just so satisfying. It also has the normal Zachtronics thing of it being really freeform. You're not so much finding the solution to each puzzle as you are designing a solution to the problem before you. It's so great. Grade: A+ Maybe I should go back and give SpaceChem another try... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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