I mentioned last week that things aren’t great and that’s still the case, leading to a situation I can’t really focus on anything specific and been bouncing between various titles trying to find something to occupy my time. Didn’t have much luck so far but I’m still trying.
Bouncing between a bunch of games
My first idea was to play some Division 2 however that game had other plans. I once again have issues with Easy Anti-Cheat except this time my usual workaround doesn’t work so I can’t even load beyond the main menu.
Next was Assassin’s Creed Unity, which ended in another failure. This time the issue had with the game not reacting to any input from my controller (well, I could press start on the title screen but nothing else). I tried playing directly from UPlay, I tried launching everything through Steam to use Steam Input - still no reaction to the controller, regardless of what I did.
I tried playing with keyboard and mouse but that was a miserable experience so I stopped immedietly after the prologue section. Playing this way is just too stiff and not fun at all.Alright, my library is pretty big so I can go further - how about Terraria? I had it in my backlog for years but only tried it for less than an hour total. Let’s go with that. Well, I did. Then I went back to Starbound (Glad Giraffe beta specifically). Terraria might be a better game I man do I not vibe with its art style. Not only that, I actually find Starbound to be more intuitive (why can I destroy blocks with a pickaxe but can’t do the same to background walls for example?) and enjoyable to play. It’s one of those cases where a thing doesn’t have to be the best, it just have to be the best “for me”.
So yeah, Terraria was also a bust.I also tried Heroes of Might and Magic III but as much as I like the game, I’m just not in the right headspace to play titles like this.
Two titles I actually managed to stuck with for now are: Ghost Recon Wildlands and D1AL-ogue.
I have some mixed feelings about GRW. Graphically it looks great (except for characters’ hands, which look like everyone is 80 year old) and the gameplay feels just as good. Gunplay is smooth and satisfying, weapon customisation is simple but does its job well. I also really enjoy its movement system, even if there are some times where it controlled more like The Division (there are also some things I’d from this game I’d love to see in TD).
One thing I wasn’t ready for was how fragile you are in this game - I like it. It forces you to approach missions more tactically instead of running in guns blazing.Writing is… fine. It does its job but it’s not really my cup of tea. Voice acting (at least for the main character) can also be hit or miss depending on the line. I do however like the approach to in-combat callouts. They are calm, professional and feel perfect for characters who suppose to be an elite combat unit.
Despite all of those things ranging from good to decent, I have a difficult time actually clicking with this game - no idea why. Might be my brain’s fault.
All in all, it’s a decent time waster that should tide me over until I’m ready to go back to Stalker. Probably won’t be something I’ll keep returning to regularly, unlike TD, but it’s enjoyable enough.
D1AL-ogue is a cyberpunk visual novel with puzzle elements, heavily inspired by VA-11 Hall:A. You play as an android repair man instead of bartender but the vibes, gorgeous visuals and (not as great) music leave no doubt about that inspiration. Puzzle gameplay is simple but fun, and each “stage” for visiting character is followed by a dialogue segments about various topics.
Writing could use a bit more polish (studio is Korean, I think, and there are some weirdly worded parts here and there) but it looks like devs are working on an expanded version of the game and improved English localisation so we can expect that to change in the future.
Game is free on Steam so if anyone’s looking for VA-11 Hall:A vibes, this title is a good choice.
Kerbal Space Program, my one true love.
I’ve got a few games with 100-300 hours of playtime, but KSP is EASILY in the thousands, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m over 10,000.
And before you ask, no, I’m not an expert, most of my rockets are named either “1.4.2.A.1(b)[rev. 5.0]” or “bendy fuckstick 9000 (mun)”
Cyberpunk 2077 ultimate! I finally got it. Thanks to a steam summer sale! Hooray!
Last time it was Metro Last Light Redux, now it’s Metro Exodus Enhanced PC Edition.
I liked Last Light, but it wasn’t as good as 2033. The mechanics may have been better, but the atmosphere wasn’t as good. Not bad though.
Exodus is so different from the first two. No actual metros anymore, and semi open worlds above ground. Gameplay and story are good so far, but a long way from the claustrophobic fight for survival of the first game.
I picked up Vampire Crawlers and got a solid 24 hours on it in the last 2 weeks. The game starts off a bit slow with the introduction of mechanics, but when wild cards get involved, it descends into being able to break the game in hilarious ways.
For example, there’s many upgrades you spend gold on in between runs. I strategized to upgrade how much gold I would get in each run. Turned out that wasn’t necessary because you could combo your gold increase per run to over 1000% and gem your card to print money.
I kinda attribute the rules of the game to a “cool uncle” that lets you eat a pint of ice cream for dinner. Is it healthy? No. What is a fun thing to discover and do? Hell yes.
Finished Creature Kitchen, which was charming and bite-sized. Loved the retro inspired graphics.
Alternating between replays of Cult of the Lamb and Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Dabbling in Cyberpunk when I’m home and feel like firing up my desktop so I can stream it since my Steam Deck doesn’t handle it locally at the levels I want it to.
Also got a gift copy of The Force Unleashed so will probably try that out this weekend too 😄
I haven’t started it yet (haven’t even bought it yet), but I’ll probably pick up Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and start playing that this week. I’ve been listening to the Jet Set Radio soundtrack lately, I mentioned that in a fedi thread, and several people said I needed to play Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. It’s been on my wishlist for a while now.
Finished Hotline Miami a few days ango and currently in the tail end of the sequel: Wrong Number. The first instalment is pretty much a masterpiece, if one is okay to overlook the copious amounts of violence.
Played it on the Vita, so the controls were a bit tricky at first, but lost track of time once I got a hang of it.
Have my sights set on Heart of Darkness next. I played the demo more than 2 decades ago on a Windows 98 PC. I recently became aware that it has been ported to Vita.
I started Cyberpunk 2077 but I’m not quite ready for another big RPG yet. Got Deep Rock Galactic and played a few hours. I also played some Heroes of Hammerwatch 2.
Mostly though I’ve been playing Wayfinder which has been a pleasant surprise. The art has some real WoW BfA vibes (first area reminds me of Boralus).
I’m playing Road 96 this week, which is on sale for cheap currently and I’ve been curious about for a while.
I should save the full review for after I’ve seen the ending, but it’s definitely an interesting game. The perspective of how the story is told is very unique - there is no protagonist or main character. In fact, it’s almost like a “story roguelite”. You play in multiple individual “runs”, where in each run you play as a nameless and faceless teenager trying to get to the border of the fictional dictatorship Petria and escape the country through Road 96. You even unlock abilities during some events that you can use in any future run, to further the whole roguelite feel.
During each of the runs, you come across a set of characters, and a large part of the story is their stories, told through the eyes of all these nameless teens you play as as you continuously come across these same characters at random points during your journeys.
The other story is the fate of the nation, and this is where the Telltale-style choices-matter stuff comes in. There are three types of dialogue you can pick, either promoting revolution, peaceful change through voting or just ignoring everything and fleeing the country. I’m assuming the ending you get will be influenced by which of these you pick the most times. I’m interested to see what the endings are like, especially regarding how they’re handling revolution/voting.
Overall it’s a bit of a weird one because I like some of the things it’s doing and it has a charm to it, but I also a lot of the time can’t help but think “man, I wish this game was just a little better”. Like, the story concept seems fine but the writing isn’t great. The voice acting is pretty poor, and it’s not that well recorded either. Some of the political stuff and the story looks like it lacks nuance. It seems like the product of a team with a lot of interesting ideas, but not necessarily the skill or budget to execute them.
But eh, for a couple of dollars I am not going to complain too much. And it does have a charm to it.
Puzzle Swap
The only thing game related this week is collecting puzzle pieces on the 2DS. I added all the extra boards that were released so now I have almost two thousand pieces to collect using NetPass!
I finished Quantum Break, the game is ok, but I don’t find it to be among Remedy’s best games.I think the story has potential to be better than it is, and it’s not bad at all. I still have to watch the rest of the endings, but I’ll watch them on YouTube or whatever. Overall I’d give it a 7, maybe 7.5.
Next stop is Control’s DLCs, but I’m having trouble getting into it. I replayed the base game like 2 months ago and now I can’t get into it again, I’m progressing through the Alan Wake DLC but I’m not really feeling it, might end up looking for a summary if it keeps feeling like this. I might play Alan Wake 2 afterwards, but I’m definitely not giving a cent to Epic, so if I play it, I’ll just borrow it. My PC should be able to play it at a decent quality level and frame rate, especially considering I’m playing all games at 1152x864@75hz on a CRT monitor lately.
I’m still working my way through Cronos: The New Dawn:
spoiler
I just finished the steelworks area and saved the turning brother instead of my original target. I’m guessing the game has several endings and the choices in conversations affect which one I’ll get. I restored power and I’m about to perform the second ascension. The story is definitely keeping me engaged.
You should definitely play Alan Wake 2, especially after having done the homework of playing all their earlier games. It is in my opinion Remedy’s best game and a phenomenal game in general, I had it as my GOTY 2023 over BG3. Great story, beautiful presentation and cinematography and very tight gameplay.
