Thirith on 29/7/2022 at 14:33
For the record, there's more going on in the game that in theory I can get behind. (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CA3S9L_JvU) Errant Signal did a video about it that I think makes good points. Thing is, while I buy that the devs did intend for the second half of the game to be a red herring that has thematic relevance, it didn't work for me the way it probably was intended. The red herring takes up too much space, it has too much weight. I think the same could've been achieved with more subtlety, letting what matters most about the story breathe better.
Anyway... I also just finished
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, and sadly, it's by far my least favourite of all the
Dishonored games. It's by no means outright bad, and I'm with Malf when it comes to Rosario Dawson, but IMO it only has one standout environment/mission (the bank heist), many of its environments are either straight repeats or they're relatively uninteresting remixes of other maps, and the final mission straight out sucks if you, like me, mainly play
Dishonored as a stealthy character. It's never great if a game ends on what is the weakest part by far. For anyone into
Dishonored, it's still worth it, especially since it's likely to be the last we get of the series, but I'm pretty ambivalent about it on the whole.
henke on 29/7/2022 at 17:39
I loved Firewatch. Tho I'll agree it started stronger than it finished.
Anyway what have I been playing lately?
Röki - I'm about 2h into this charming lil adventure. Navigating its world and doing the quite easy puzzles is nice, but the story hasn't really hooked me. It's a bit too twee.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla - I'm maybe 2h into this one as well, just got to the opening title screen. Can't be bothered playing it for more than 15-20 min at a time tho. Never been the biggest AC fan, and this is... eh! Just eh! Maybe I'll play a bit more.
Death's Door - very slick and polished, but not really grabbing me.
Also been playing a bit of Lawn Mower Simulator and Power Wash Simulator while listening to podcasts. You're just doing menial tasks while watching a lil meter go up. That's it. It's... something.
Jason Moyer on 29/7/2022 at 20:28
Quote Posted by Thirith
Anyway... I also just finished
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, and sadly, it's by far my least favourite of all the
Dishonored games. It's by no means outright bad, and I'm with Malf when it comes to Rosario Dawson, but IMO it only has one standout environment/mission (the bank heist), many of its environments are either straight repeats or they're relatively uninteresting remixes of other maps, and the final mission straight out sucks if you, like me, mainly play
Dishonored as a stealthy character. It's never great if a game ends on what is the weakest part by far. For anyone into
Dishonored, it's still worth it, especially since it's likely to be the last we get of the series, but I'm pretty ambivalent about it on the whole.
I thought the new powers made stealth way more hilariously O/P in the last one. Being able to set teleport waymarkers and instantly flash between them is probably the most amazing power in the entire series.
Thirith on 30/7/2022 at 09:22
You're right - there are definitely techniques that would work, but they're much more specific than in the rest of the Dishonored games. And for me personally, they're simply not enjoyable: I like Arkane's environments best when I can traverse them in ways that feel physical and tangible. Walking, jumping, mantling, falling, that sort of thing. Blink and its variations are a great addition to these, but when a level turns into a Blink puzzle, it's not what I enjoy about Dishonored any more.
henke on 30/7/2022 at 13:53
Ok I finished Voltage High Society. (glad to see I've managed to trick Jesh and Dema into picking up copies of it as well) The devs just released a patch which fixed a bunch of things, added more options, and even a couple gameplay tweaks I'd suggested. Anyway, the first chapter finale is terrifying and awesome, and I'm curious to see where it goes next.
Harvester on 30/7/2022 at 21:03
Haha, my next Apple Arcade game (gotta take advantage of those free 3 months) is Sayonara: Wild Hearts. Anyone know it and played it? It's advertised as a 'pop album game' and playing through it lasts about as long as a pop album indeed. It's ultra fast, quite original, with dazzling visuals and a catchy soundtrack, and completely bonkers. I suck at it, but the game is very forgiving. The makers clearly don't want you to get stuck, even if you rank as 'No rank' you can still continue to the next 'track', and when you fail a segment of a track four times you get the option of skipping it (which I've disabled, because I might suck but I still don't want to skip anything). I get mostly Bronze Rank on the segments, with some Silvers and sometimes even No Rank. I'm near the end but this has some replay value since it's so short, you can just start over to try and get better scores. The visuals are highly stylized and not very complex, so thankfully the limited hardware of my Apple TV box runs it quite well, and it looks gorgeous on my tv and sounds great over the soundbar. The best I can describe it as is an interactive synthwave album, and it also reminds me of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World a little.
Apple Arcade also has a version of Thumper, also a fast game based on rhythm and music. But as I understand it Thumper is quite harsh, abrasive and unforgiving. Maybe I'll try it but as a 40-something guy who doesn't have teenage reflexes anymore I think I like the more forgiving, player-friendly style of Sayonara better. The developers clearly just want you to have stress-free fun and immerse yourself in the visuals and music, which I can appreciate. And I admire the sheer inventiveness and originality.
[video=youtube;F-RyxYcxSQ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-RyxYcxSQ4[/video]
Aja on 31/7/2022 at 14:45
I decided to upgrade to the middle PSN tier, and there's actually a ton of interesting games in the catalogue now. First I played Stray, which has adorable cat animations but feels a little shallow. I also picked up Wreckfest -- I loved Rally Trophy way back in the day, and I can see the lineage here. In spite of its silly redneck aesthetic it has a detailed physics model and the cars feel weighty and realistic. I'm interested to see how it'll play with a wheel. And finally I've been playing Control again. I know it got some flack here, but I think I love it. I meant to just play for a few minutes to see how ray tracing looks (it looks cool), but hours later it's looking like I'll play it to completion. It just felt good to be back in that world.
Thirith on 2/8/2022 at 07:37
I started playing The Long Dark in an attempt to feel less hot. I'd liked what I'd seen and read about the game so far, and after absolutely loving Subnautica I was ready to try my hand at a different survival game. And I guess it's okay? I have to admit that it's not really pulled me in so far. I like it in theory, but I don't particularly enjoy the act of playing the game. I don't think the story mode does a great job of introducing the various systems to me; it's not outright bad, but it's kinda dull. The story is also a very slow burn, and none of the characters I've met so far seem particularly interesting. I'm also not a huge fan of the overall aesthetic of the game; it's okay that it's relatively low-detail, but the lighting is flatter than I like, and the look of the game doesn't add to my immersion. Also, in the buildings of the starting town I've found that there are filler textures that look like they should be objects I can interact with, but nothing happens when I look at them, so I guess they really are just textures - but if they look pretty much like other pieces of paper I've picked up to use to make fires, this strikes me as less than ideal. I'll definitely stick with this for a while, but right now it's mainly making me think that perhaps I should play Subnautica: Below Zero instead.
PigLick on 2/8/2022 at 10:40
I really enjoyed The Long Dark before they added the story mode, they went and changed a lot of the mechanics and it just never felt the same to me after that.
Tomi on 2/8/2022 at 11:46
I've only ever played the story mode in The Long Dark, but I find it a bit disappointing that it's not really much of a survival game, even though it claims to be one. The story isn't all that interesting either, or at least its delivery isn't done so well. I think I got quite far, but eventually gave up when things got a bit too tedious. Back then the story wasn't even finished anyway, is that still the case?
This week I've been playing Siege Survival: Gloria Victis. It's good, and damn addictive! It's a refreshing take on a war game; you play as a bunch of civilians who are simply trying to survive a siege, and help the soldiers (not by taking part in the actual battle, but by crafting and repairing weapons and armour, and providing food/water/medicine for them) fight the invading enemy army. During the day you craft and build stuff at the castle, and at the night you go out in the city and try to salvage any useful items while avoiding guards. The stealth is very basic but makes the night missions actually feel dangerous and exciting. The crafting system seems more complicated than I first thought, there's definitely a bit of a learning curve, but I don't think that it's too difficult. I just finished my first game - we all died after two weeks of desperate battle. Depressing, but next time I'll have a better idea of how to run things.
Siege Survival is a lot like This War of Mine, it's just even more complex and it's in 3D. Word of warning for those who can't live without save scumming though. You can't do that here - the game automatically saves at the beginning of each day, so that's like every 15 minutes or so. I love that system though, it makes everything feel so much more exciting when you know that you can't just hit quickload every time a guard spots you, but if a total disaster strikes and you want to pretend that it never happened, you won't lose too much progress. Perfection.
I also started playing Thi4f again. Can't believe that it's been eight years since this game came out! :D I'm a couple of missions in already, and I've genuinely been positively surprised about the game so far. The bad stuff hasn't gone away obviously, but the good stuff is better than I remembered! More about this later...
