Tried The Ascent because of just how slick it looked in the previews I saw. And you’re right, the atmosphere is great. But I have a low tolerance for the looter shooter format and I don’t play much online coop, so I got real bored of it real fast.
I’ve been enjoying Pacific Drive this week. It’s a great survival crafting game in the vein of Subnautica, which is to say there is a linear progression path for upgrades and improvement, and a well-defined objective and end goal.
I just wish it was less stressful. Even just the normal act of activating a gateway to end a run requires a race through your current zone where one misstep can cause you to get stuck long enough to fail. And sometimes conditions just really stack up against you in a way that can be unexpected and frustrating.
Overall though it really hits the spot with its loop. I love returning to the garage and going through the ritual of healing, fueling up, recharging, transferring supplies, and checking on upgrades.
Oh…I also finished and platinumed 13 sentinels earlier this week. I enjoyed that one a lot more than I expected. It’s as compelling as it is eye-rollingly funny how many sci-fi tropes the main story burns through, but I i was frequently and pleasantly taken by surprise. And the battle system, which through the first area I thought was so easy it was basically a formality, really did become more challenging and tactical, especially when trying to get S ranks.
Good luck my friend. Hollow Knight is a special one, but those bosses can be punishing. A few of them took me separate sessions over a few days, which is a frustrating way to play games for me, but it’s such a rewarding experience otherwise. I recently rewatched my recording of beating one of the bosses and I was fumbling so bad, I could see my own desperation in the way I was playing.
Apparently there’s a secret phase for the final boss that I was more than happy to experience via YouTube. I was perfectly satisfied with just rolling the credits.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I am about 25% through with both Remembrance and the battles… Destruction? I’m in awe of the narrative’s complexity. It’s also a little overwhelming, it feels impossible to get any kind of handle on things. The game adds new layers every time you think you’re getting it.
Im really enjoying it though, the mystery is really fun to dig at.
I also beat Malenia this week, which is pretty much the last major thing I had left in my first Elden Ring save. I got help of course (thanks superelva11), but it’s been really satisfying tying a bow on that. 140 hours, plus another 30-35 on a second save - Elden Ring is officially the most time I’ve ever spent on a single game by quite a large margin.
I kind of love Control’s navigation. The map is helpful enough to point you in the right direction, but also shitty enough that you have to pay attention to the diagetic signage. It’s uniquely immersive.
I don’t know if Prey is my favorite game of all time, but it’s on the short list. I can, however, say that it is the game that most fills me with awe. Talos 1 is an extraordinary playspace filled with incredible detail, choice, style, and diversity. The narrative, possibly the weakest element of the game, still packs in a lot of cool ideas and genuine surprises.
Prey also contains by far my favorite opening “level” of all time. Without spoiling, the immediate tonal shift, the creepy mystery, the complete recontextualization of your first 10 or 15 minutes, it’s an absolute spectacle.
In a perfect world, all these devs get absorbed by WolfEye Studios or something and they get a bunch of funding to make another massive masterpiece.
The Nightmare Typhon that has a timer? That sucks. I don’t remember having too much trouble in my first playthrough - I have memories of just hiding in a bathroom that it was too big to enter until the timer ran out for one of the encounters. But I can imagine that if you’re in a particularly bad area when it comes for you it could cause problems.
Bloomberg previously reported that the vampire shooter’s [Arkane’s Redfall] troubled development grew out of a push by top Bethesda leadership to make a live-service game, a decision that ultimately led to sky-high attrition and multiple delays.
All reward, no risk for the executives demanding that their best-in-class immersive sim developer create an empty live service shooter. Stupid decision led to predictable outcome and the workers feel the ax for it.
Finished the main campaign in Midnight Suns. I maintain what I’ve said previously about the dialogue and characterizations bearing heavy MCU fanfic vibes. None of these versions of the characters qualify among my favorite iterations. But hot damn if it isn’t super well balanced, addicting, and fun to play. The 60 or so hours I spent on it went by like a breeze and I still dip in to raise my remaining friendship levels.
I tried out Sifu from PS Plus and am glad I hadn’t ever bought it. Seems like a super cool idea and good execution, but it felt a little like a fighting game with its button pressing combos (plus I hate combos where you have to flick the movement stick around). I also didn’t fancy the idea of having to worry about how old I was gettiing in the early levels and potentially have to play them over again just to lower my age for later level runs. Broke my threshold for punitive tedium.
Now I’m a few hours into Outward, and it’s promising so far. I’m loving the promise of the new stuff I can find and make, although I’m taking it super slow because the power dynamic is (intentionally) very intimidating.
This is my first Nintendo system since the NES. I’ve never been a big fan of their first-party properties when I’ve played on others’ consoles, although I am interested in the Switch Zelda games....
I hear ya, but I think that’s why I’d like to try them both, in order. More game, without tarnishing the experience of the first.
I’ve never particularly cared for Mario, but in retrospect it’s always felt somehow alien when I’ve tried playing them, like they all have this particular identity, and I’m not in its clique. Maybe I should actually sit down with one on my own and give it a solid try (rather than just sampling at someone else’s place).
Thanks, he’s obsessed with Pokemon and has been glued to the game so far. I’m interested in checking them out myself and will try popping in as second player!
Marvel Midnight Suns. Disregarded it on announcement and launch because I wasn’t interested in the core card-based system. Played a little bit of Slay the Spire, which didn’t catch with me but did suggest I might actually be able to enjoy a card-based system with enough narrative context to keep me interested.
So far, so good. I just completed Act 1 (which prompted me to exclaim “that was only act 1??”) and I’m a little worried that I’m going to tire of the side missions soon and lose steam overall, but it hasn’t happened yet. The characters are fine enough, although they definitely give off MCU fanfic vibes (it’s jarring to me having a Peter Parker voiced by Yuri Lowenthal who is such a little remora sidekick in his characterization). The loop is pretty satisfying, if not a little clunky, and I wish the balance between doing battles and running around the abbey grounds leaned a little less on the abbey stuff.
But it’s a lot of fun and very addictive. I’m saddened that it performed poorly but I bear my part of the responsibility willingly.
I don’t know if my fondness for any game tanked as steeply as Ghostwire Tokyo. I started out really enjoying it gameplay and traversal, the environmental design and level of detail, the style and enemy design. But it just did not last. I got reasonably swept up in map-clearing activities myself but grew bored of them so quickly I could barely bring myself to finish the game’s relatively swift main campaign.
I actually do enjoy a bit of tedium, but it very specifically has to be building to something (I’ll swim around breaking rocks as long as Subnautica demands me to if it means getting to build some cool new thing).
Your point about not opening half the map just on the main missions is salient too for the same reason. Collecting for collecting’s sake is not enough for me, and too much of this game is just…there.
That’s cool. I do enjoy lore, but more in an “explain it to me on YouTube” kind of way than an “uncover it organically through gameplay” way. I need characters, acts, and arcs to be immediately engaged.
The most recent detective game I played (if it qualifies as such for you) was Paradise Killer, which surprisingly I enjoyed quite a bit. Again though, the lore has close ties to the interpersonal relationships of all the characters on the island.
Home entertainment is such a closed system that all these companies are just beta testing shitty ideas for each other. Eventually they all do the same thing as long as any backlash was neither too destructive to revenue nor sustained. See endless streaming services price hikes, account sharing lockdowns, or the fact that you just can’t buy dumb TVs anymore.
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 21st
Happy late thread day! Yesterday I participated in a relay triathlon and was way too pooped to do the thread, sorry!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 23rd
Whatcha all playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 2nd
What are you all playing? I’ve been trying out the slay the spire downfall mod a bit. Got some wins with the new characters. A lot of fun!
Remembering Prey, Arkane Austin’s masterpiece (www.rockpapershotgun.com) angielski
Microsoft closes Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin and others (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 21st
Another thread! Whatcha all been playing?...
Got a Switch today, need some recommendations.
This is my first Nintendo system since the NES. I’ve never been a big fan of their first-party properties when I’ve played on others’ consoles, although I am interested in the Switch Zelda games....
A very timely "Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 7th"
On time this time :)...
Roku’s New HDMI Tech Could Show Ads When You Pause Your Game (kotaku.com)