I missed that you’ve started on Alan Wake 2 now, but I’m glad you’ve got it running somewhat acceptably! It’s a very demanding game, when I first played it I didn’t have my new PC so I’m intimately familiar with struggling to be able to run it.
I’m glad you spotted the signs, I love the work on all the signs and graffiti in the dark place.
Finished Metro: Last Light last week. Have to say I didn’t really like it. Spoiler warnings below. The good bits were good, to be sure: the populated stations of Bolshoi and Venice were phenomenal and there were parts that harked back to the highlights of the first game - the early parts with Pavel for instance and some nice levels in the tunnels. Playing on Survival Hardcore there were passages that were phenomenally immersive and enjoyable, and I do love the world building around the communities in the metro.
The story just didn’t land with me. The political war left me completely uninterested and the love story with Anna was so half-baked I almost wanted to stop playing right there when the sex scene happened. I also didn’t really like the overly supernatural stuff like the River of Fate. It was also kind of hard for me to follow the logic of the narrative at times as it felt like Artyom was just kind of drifting around and happened to end up where he needed to be regardless. He also should have died like a dozen times, but I guess he’s a superhero.
The moral system left me frustrated more than anything now that I knew about its existence (I played 2033 completely blind). Finally, the boss fights felt terrible and really out of place in a game that should be about tension, loneliness and stealth. Artyom was too much of an action hero here for my taste. There wasn’t really anything like the great Library level in 2033. When he picked up a gatling gun at the end like a russian Rambo and fought off a horde of enemies I was rolling my eyes.
Still, I’m glad to have gotten through it finally - this was my second attempt - and I am interested to see what they did in Exodus as I’ve heard nothing but good things.
For now I’m taking a breather and tackling Bioshock 2, another backlog game to get through before being able to play Infinite, which is the game I’m really looking forward too.
Yeah I really like it for the retro-futuristic theme of Bioshock, not sure about it meshing as well with an outright futuristic setting as in this game.
Yeah it’s funny now that you mention it but I don’t really remember the battle music if XV all that well. But I have stuff like Valse di Fantastica/Sunset Walz/Dewdrops at Dawn and Ardyn’s themes seared into my brain.
What I love about the series is that there are so many varied entries that everyone can find their own favourite, consensus be dammed.
I’ll always consider VI the absolute peak Final Fantasy - beautiful pixel art, Active Time Battles, SNES Mode 7, brilliant score, a fantastic story with a memorable villain and a large and varied ensemble cast of great characters… It has it all for me.
I also have to somewhat ashamedly admit that for whatever reason I actually have some fondness for XV. I’ve posted about it before but I have such a hard time succinctly putting my feelings about it into words, because it is by no means a good game. It’s probably the biggest discrepancy I’ve experienced between the objective quality of a game and how much I enjoyed playing it. Whether it’s the stellar fishing mini game or the random wholesome interactions between the gang and the overall bro trip vibe I don’t know but there is something there. And the score is no Uematsu perhaps but I really enjoyed it and thought they did some wonderful leitmotif work.
Agreed, really looking forward to seeing what he’s cooking up. One of the few people with legitimate claims to being able to make a legit “unofficial sequel”. Really hoping to hear something out of Red Info too soon (Kurvitz’s and Rostov’s new company).
I’ve literally got a save file prepped where I rushed getting to B&W before doing literally anything else so I can play the whole games’s Gwent with the Skellige deck when I decide to play it again. You don’t get enough time with it and it’s such a fun deck!
Can’t believe I had to scroll down this far to find Neon White but I’m glad someone mentioned it! It is pretty much the flow state shooter, should be perfect for OP.
Oooh tough question. Maybe Bioshock Infinite? I only ever played the first one but picked up the full bundle on sale on GOG last year. I have to get through 2 first which has put me off a bit since it’s a big time commitment.
The combat is way too easy on normal difficulty - this is fine if you only want to experience the story but very understimulating otherwise. I honestly suggest trying to play the game on Death March (but turn it up after the first time you fight a pack of Ghouls, they’ll fuck you up). On Death March you’ll be incentivized to interact with the game systems: Alchemy, Signs, specific monster weaknesses in the bestiary. All this really makes you feel more like a witcher, which in my opinion enriches the gameplay.
Experiment with builds - respec potions are fairly plentiful so don’t be scared to put points into stuff. Don’t underestimate Alchemy, but make sure you visit all the herbalists you can find to purchase recipes, the difference between basic alchemy and the upgraded recipes is massive.
Play Gwent, and check every single store you come across for cards and instantly buy them all. W3 Gwent is fantastic and half the fun of the game.
With the story calling back to both the two previous games and the books it’s not a bad idea to try to find some story recaps on YouTube of what has happened earlier in the story.
EDIT: Completely put 100%-ing the game out of your mind. There are a million ?'s on the map and they are almost all completely meaningless filler content. Trying to collect all the sunken treasure in Skellige will completely burn you out and make you hate the game.
While you’re not wrong about the grid, safe spots like the ones discussed in the video are generally more about being not off-grid but also outside the range of the Directional Scanner (14.3 AU). These safe spots can only be found via Combat Scanner Probes.
That being said, closer off-grid bookmarks also have their uses, but wouldn’t generally be labeled “safe spots”. At least that’s how I went about it years ago, I am also on a very extended break.