I finished Pentiment yesterday, what an absolute masterpiece. It’s certainly not for everyone - and I initially hesitantly added it to my backlog for this year as a very different game from what I’m used to - but it resonated so much with me.
I also started Castlevania: SOTN, which I quite enjoy so far - metroidvanias are usually hit or miss for me so I’m going in with tempered expectations.
And I’m attempting a fresh playthrough of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, which I shelved a couple years ago.
What mods did you end up with?
I shelved RDR2 a while ago (year and a half ago?) but would like to get back to it at some point, likely with some QoL enhancements
Realistically, as you mentioned with FF XIV ARR now being a classic but also being a pain to get into is true for any other older FF, many people simply have rose tinted glasses to keep them from seeing all the flaws present in those prior entries.
I also started with FF VII, but 25 years after its release, and let me tell you that it did not age well (at all) imo.
Had I not picked up FF XVI, I probably wouldn’t have given the series another chance.
I now played both FF VII remakes to date and absolutely loved them, especially Rebirth, and am going through FF VI, which I also think is a masterpiece tbh.
FF IV didn’t work out for me, but that’s fine.
All that to say, video game series evolve, ARPGs have been quite popular for a while and FF went that route - for now. That doesn’t make for bad games, and the series will keep evolving.
I started 1000xRESIST over the weekend and just can’t put it down, I should finish it in a few hours.
After that, I’ll likely pick up either Divinity: Original Sin 2 (I’m a couple of hours in) or the DLCs for Alan Wake 2 (since I finished the main game a few days ago), we’ll see.
In an ideal world, every game should be fully cross-buy IMO, but that tends to never be the case.
PlayStation used to have PS3/PS4/PSVita cross-buy games for a while, but they didn’t keep it going for their recent PC porting efforts (that clearly wouldn’t help their bottom line).
Xbox has Play Anywhere, and that’s likely the closest to a functional cross-buy (and cross-play) we have today - that’s the main draw for me if (when) I ever buy games digitally on Xbox.
Tekken 8 is slowly consuming me whole… and I don’t mind. I love the game so far! When I’m not playing, I’m looking up combos, pro replays, various advanced tutorials… I’m fully committed at this point, haha.
That being said, my library has let me know that a copy of Sonic X Shadow Generations is available for borrowing, so I’ll switch it up a bit this week!
Burnout, what a game! I know 3 still is regarded as one of the best arcade racers to this day, although tbh - controversial opinion, I know - Paradise is likely my favourite in the series.
I’m still playing Persona 3 Reload and I believe it finally clicked for me.
I still don’t particularly like Tartarus that much, but I’ve been able to complete each section relatively quickly so far (and without grinding) so it’s certainly not too bad. The rest of the game has definitely opened up though (thankfully, I’m about 30-35 hrs in, haha).
Slowly making my way through Jeanne d’Arc on the side - gameplay wise it’s up my alley (minus grinding…), however the story is pretty subpar imo.
Persona 3 Reload - I’m not sure whether I like it or not just yet tbh. I’m about 20 hours in (or 2 months of “in-game time”) and the plot is very slow to unravel.
I don’t like turn-based RPGs usually, so combat is a bit of a chore and the exploration of Tartarus is very samey. Social sim aspects have been fine, but I guess I expected a bit more interactivity? I’m not sure. Its been nice to learn more about side characters, albeit ones not present in the “core” team.
The only somewhat similar game I’ve played before is Fire Emblem: Three Houses and I absolutely loved it, but I was much more interested in the gameplay (T-RPGs are 100% up my alley) and social sim was okay as well.
I think my primary issue with P3R is the setting - which I didn’t think would matter so much - I really don’t relate to high school life / issues anymore and it’s making it hard for me to get into the game…
The OST is absolutely S-tier though (and it has made exploring Tartarus much more bearable!)
Ditto. tbh after hearing Ben Starr in the first few seconds of the trailer, I was hooked, but the style and gameplay showcased definitely impressed me even more.
Absolutely! You could sort of “cheese” your way into climbing some parts of the world of Zero Dawn, but Forbidden West’s climbing is much improved - to the point that I’ve been getting sidetracked a number of times already just exploring and getting to great vistas.
That’s right! It’s referenced in the video as well (and from memory Neil also mentioned it in a previous video, but I wouldn’t be able to link to it tbf)
I finally started Horizon: Forbidden West - gameplay changes compared to HZD keep trickling in and I couldn’t be happier. I love Aloy’s character so I’m really happy to be in her shoes again.
This past week was pretty disappointing before that:
Hellblade II was good, but nowhere near as impactful as the first one for me. I’m left with a sour taste overall, although I’ll admit they did a tremendous job with cinematography and character rendering.
Stellar Blade was insipid. Whatever could save it in my book - its gameplay - turns out stale pretty quickly, so I ended up abandoning the game midway. The story and characters were really uninteresting imo, couple that with how EVE is represented… I couldn’t really find any redeeming qualities.
I finished DMC 5 SE sometime last week (or the “primary” arc at least) and it was fun as heck.
I moved on to Stellar Blade, combat is very fun/engaging, but story is utter sh*t (so comparisons with NieR were definitely unwarranted IMO, seeing as it’s pretty much the opposite of my experience with Automata).
As far as this weekend goes, I am playing Hellblade II, which was probably my most anticipated game of the year. I am loving it so far!