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this-is-lightning · 2 years

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This is gonna be a rather lengthy essay about my experience and opinion of the game Horizon - Forbidden West. Spoilers for both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West.

So the game has been out for a bit now. I have played the first game (Horizon Zero Dawn) but have experienced this - second - installment only through lets plays/playthroughs on youtube. I enjoyed both immensely and love them a lot and have a lot of opinions on them. I will try and keep this comprehensive so ill put sections.

Look/Sound

The first game was stunning already and out other console-games to shame with its clever new technology. Now on the PS5 the second game is simply stunning. Rich colors, detailed world extremely realistic face animations (tho the eye movement is a little off sometimes), incredible light and shadow. Both zero dawn and forbidden west are on the list of most stunning games ever. The audio is great and the voice actors did an amazing job again.

Hype/Marketing

The first game got a huge hype despite not being of a tripple A studio and for being in development so fucking long. But it definitely lived up to it. The second game got a lotta hype too, for the success of the first game of course and I can say it does hold what it promises. It often happens that the sequels cant live up to the first installment but that s not the case for forbidden west.

Gameplay/Mechanics

The gameplay of zero dawn was kind of revolutionary at the time and forbidden west builds and expands on those mechanics beautifully. There are endless new and expanded possibilities for taking down enemies. The overworked skilltrees are very well done and level progression is appropriate and well balanced. The new underwater and flying mechanics feel fresh and fun. The hud and weapons-wheel are functional, minimal and easy access. Fast-travel is encouraged and easy. Machine riding got a few upgrades tho the handling on some machines is a bit clunky. The new weapons make for a more diverse gameplay and the spear-combat got the much needed overwork and upgrade. However: the new gear and upgrade table is a bit much at times. Fights are quite challenging even on normal or lower. The open world doesn't feel too big if u don't focus on every little point and side-quest on the map. The wealth of things to do tho is quite overwhelming. While u can complete the game in 40 or so hours playing for 100% will easily take you 100 hours. Wich can be exhausting for open world first timers but makes for consistently fresh gameplay because u discover new mechanics even in hours 40. So there is a nice balance there I think, but that personal preference of course.

Plot/Story/Characters

Hoo boy do I love the story and characters of these games. These games are set-up tobe at least a trilogy and the story pacing, depth of lore and characters feel somewhat reminiscent of Mass Effect.

The first game focused on establishing Aloy as a character and setting the scene with tons and tons of lore. We meet characters/ friends that stay with s for the rest of the games. Its beautifully done and it feels genuinely fun uncovering the mystery of Dr. Sobek and Zero Dawn. The world ending stakes are extremely well done.

In the second game we delve deeper into Aloys character, her trauma and feelings. We meet old friends and take in new ones. The narrative focuses more on Aloy and her relationships and the ending of the world than it did in the first one. There is still a bit of this mystery hunting going on but only in the first 15 or 20 hours of the game. We get a base! We finally met GAIA! There are new tribes with their lore and history to explore. We can connects a lot more with our companions and the "squad assembly" that is happening feels nice and organic. The new characters we meet and those who become part of our squad are wonderfully done and get good screentime. The only onea i would liked to have more time with are Beta, Tilda and GAIA. Like in the first game romance is not of interest for Aloy. (But very much for her companions.) The ending felt a bit rushed but not in a dissatisfactory way. I would simply liked to have more time with it and have a longer buildup maybe, but that felt like this maybe because of the games mechanics an that the ending overall was cut into pieces of sorts.

The twist at hours 15/20 was incredibly unexpected but so SO well done. And then Beta. She is by all intends and purposes Aloys twin sister but they butt heads form the start. Their relationship is so well done! They are quite different because of their upbringing and that puts them at odds quite badly in the beginning. But ultimately they are twin sisters, with the same compassion, same heart, same mind. An it was beautiful to watch. Aloy starts this game as the loner we meet her as in the first game. The world on her shoulders to busy for feelings or connection. She pushes people away and leaves them behind so she wont get distracted, believing this GAIA/the wold/elisabets dream is her burden to carry and hers alone. But slowly and persistently her friends convince her its not, that connection and heart is her strength. And that finds its beautiful allegory in Aloy and Betas developing relationship. I have a lot of feelings bout them and I loved how they were done.

The themes of the first game was the beauty of mother hearth/ of a dream and how technology impacts our lives but most of all HOPE. The themes of the second game are the environment, climate change, corporate greed, the importance of information and most of all HOPE and CONNECTION.

I love those games dearly and cant wait till forbidden west launches on pc so i can play it myself.

#horizon forbidden west #aloy

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annoyed-galaxy · 2 years

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For the first three TES games question:

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind? Oh god yes, play it play it now, the story is amazing, the gameplay is janky but used to convey certain things about the world, the landscape is iconic and handcrafted, and it's been one of the few video game experiences that has felt magical in a very long time. It has the complex distinction of being where TES lore started really being like it is today. There's no shame in modding it either, everyone does and there are guides on it too.

The other two I haven't played, but going off on what I've heard:

The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall? Sure. It's a lot more complex than the later games are, but everything I hear about it is... Good? It's a highly political story in that the politics of the land you're in are the main focus of the story, though there is Fantasy nonsense and the seeds of the TES lore we all know and love. The majority of the land and quests are procedurally generated, and therefore kinda bland, but the big quests are supposedly pretty great. To counter that, the map is *giant*, and there are a lot of non-quest things to do. You get to go to trial for crimes. You will have to use unofficial patches to get it to work properly on modern systems but like. It's a literal "drag and drop a few files" type deal. Did I mention that it's free?

The Elder Scrolls: Arena? I mean if you *want*.... It's a very primitive game, a lot of complexity is baked into it, but like. The procedural generation mentioned in Daggerfall is worse here, and it has less of the TES charm and lore that we associate with the series now. The main quest is literally a generic "yeah go find pieces of a staff to kill an evil wizard to free the king" plot. You do have the benefit of seeing all of Tamriel, though it's uh. Literally all procedurally generated outside of the cities. Also free, but like. More useful for seeing where it all started than as it's own game nowadays.

Two Early TES Games You Didn't Mention (sentence each):

The Elder Scrolls Battlespire? Rather fun, I hear, in a 90's way, but you need to stick to a known working build because it's poorly balanced.

The Elder Scrolls Adventures Redguard? This is the actual first TES game with modern-ish lore, andhas a smaller-scale story, but it is an action-adventure game and not an RPG, so idk.

Ahh I'm appreciating all the insight everyone's been giving. It seems that morrowwind is highly suggested to play through whereas the other two seem to have mixed reviews. Main reason I wanted to play the older TES games is because I want to experience the first steps of Tamriel and really want to know about the main quest stories to see how it shapes everything for later games.

It sounds like the first two games are some hassles and not really my style of games as is, so I might pass on playing those and just watched some videos about their stories and then actually try to play morrrowind.

#Ask #Tes stuff #Tes #Thanks for the insights peeps

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winterecho-archive · 3 years

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Winter Echo is an urban fantasy story set in the Sims 4 universe. In June 2020 I was very generously given the opportunity to play with my dear friend @whyhellosims’ amazing characters, Felix and Felicia Aldrich (the FELIs, main characters of her legacy story) and started what I thought would be a short series of gameplay posts. That turned into a very long and complex story with over 300 chapters (posts), with a lot of input and collaboration by @whyhellosims (who has written some Winter Echo chapters, and created an amazing crossover story, Between, featuring my character Aerendyl Echo.)💗

This is a masterpost of all the worldbuilding I’ve done for Winter Echo along the way (and also some by @whyhellosims)! There’s some complex lore that might confuse new readers, so under the cut you’ll find links to all the posts that explain things in more detail. 😊

Rebirth

I include a link to @whyhellosims’ story Rebirth in every one of my Winter Echo posts, for people who are unfamiliar with Felix and Felicia. Rebirth is the first season of @whyhellosims’ legacy story, and introduces Felix Aldrich, whose mysterious ability to travel through time is integral to the story of Winter Echo.

Huis te Herhalen

Winter Echo really started to turn from a gameplay story into something much more complex when Winter began to tell Felix about her childhood. These backstory posts are all tagged “Huis te Herhalen”, the name of Winter’s aristocratic spellcaster family (also, the name of the house where she grew up). The link above will take you to the backstory posts in chronological order.

Love On Me

A machinima music video I created of Winter and the FELIs. I rewatch this a lot! 😆 I also made a couple of gifs of the FELIs dancing, which you can find here.

Spellcaster society and Sages explained

The system I’ve created for the Sages and the society of spellcasters in Winter Echo is fairly complex, so I wrote this detailed post explaining how it all works (including how the Tournament works to determine the next Sage).

Map of Glimmerbrook & the aristocratic spellcaster families

A map of Glimmerbrook as it was during Winter’s childhood (still mostly the same in the present) and introducing the main aristocratic spellcaster families of the time. These family names (Whitesun, Whisper, Silverstone and Grimsbane, along with Echo) go far back in the timeline of the story, and appear elsewhere occasionally. (Although not mentioned in the story, many of the spellcasters who accompanied Mistral to Forgotten Hollow had these family names or variations of them.)

Voices of Felix, Felicia and Winter

A short video I made of what Felix, Felicia and Winter’s voices sound like in my game.

The FELIs arrive in Evergreen Harbor

This part of Winter Echo was written by @whyhellosims, and she also took most of the shots and edited them. It tells the story of how the FELIs ended up in Evergreen Harbor in the first place, and is a kind of side story/extra for the third season of her legacy story, Gemini.

Fallhelm

A video I made about my build for Fallhelm, the spellcaster town where the Tournament is held.

The Tournament Soundtrack

For the chapters featuring the Tournament, I linked background music for each post. In this post I collected all of this music into a soundtrack.

Untamed Sages Line of Succession

This post explains the (tumultuous) line of succession of the Untamed Sages over the last 400 years, ending with Morgyn Ember. The set of posts in which Morgyn speaks with his past Sages begins here.

Between: A Winter Echo Crossover

A crossover story by @whyhellosims (posted on her blog) which tells the story of what became of Aerendyl Echo after he was hit by the spell that sent Winter into the Evergreen Harbor time loop. It’s a very important part of the plot of Winter Echo!

Anamnesis: A Holiday Winter Echo Side Story

This is a Winter Echo side story I created in December 2020, following two townies inside the Evergreen Harbor time loop (Bess and Jules). Unlike Winter and the FELIs, the townies inside the time loop experience the same day over and over, and have little memory of the passage of time.

Winter Echo World Map

A world map I created showing the location of all the towns featured in Winter Echo in relation to each other. After Winter and the FELIs left the time loop, they travelled to various different places and I wanted to show the relative distances involved in their journey.

Morgdalf

A silly teaser video I made before Morgyn led Winter, the FELIs and the twins across the mountains to Forgotten Hollow.

The Ancient War

A brief backstory, in which Morgyn tells Winter and the FELIs how the ancient spellcasters met the vampires while trying to reach the Sunken Forest.

More to come... 😉

#ts4 #ts4 story #sims 4 #sims 4 story #winter echo #worldbuilding #visual storytelling #psa

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softpine · 3 years

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this pack shot serotonin straight into my veins (full thoughts below)

okay i fucking love this pack, i don’t even care if i sound like a bootlicker fjksjd i feel like the sims team actually listened to what we enjoy in packs and gave us something we can all use, whether you’re into family gameplay or.. whatever else you guys do jsdkjs

MY FAVORITE THINGS;

⋙ hiking!! is so cute!! as you can see, i had 8 sims go on a hike together so i thought for sure that they would split up and it would be a mess, but they stayed in one group the whole time and were talking to each other, taking pics, changing their walk styles, etc. it felt so alive and adorable. and at the end, they all got sentiments bringing them closer together! (also, there’s more than 1 hiking spot! and more than 1 route in each! it’s soo big!)

⋙ SLEDDING!!! i’m obsessed!! it has the cutest animations, you can use any combination of ages (and they all have new animations for each -- like stevie & asa went over this big hill and it was a disaster, but mikaela & baby sadie’s ride was totally smooth). outstanding ;-;

⋙ you can live in the world, or there’s rentals! that was super helpful.

⋙ they weren’t lazy with the animations. there are new ones for skiing & snowboarding, different types of falling, different faces based on skill, etc. also, the kotatsu! so cute!!

⋙ the world is beautiful and feels so alive. it doesn’t feel like a vacation world like granite falls or selvadorada do, it feels real. and the townies have lore!!! (never before seen in ts4 lmao) and there’s plenty of little things to do in the world to keep you busy.

⋙ build buy & cas items are just *chefs kiss* SO CUTE. especially bb, it feels so detailed and there are plenty of new items with new interactions. cas items are wild with patterns which i usually hate, but it’s outdoor clothes so it makes sense. and the hairs are amazing!

MY NOT-SO-FAVORITE THINGS;

⋙ onsen woohoo is really strange because it gives you the option to do it in the public spa area, but like.. there are children around?? and they don’t go away? very weird. even wicked whims was like “nah we’re not letting you do that” but the game itself was like “go ahead, woohoo in public” so... just weird.

⋙ i can’t remember what it’s called, but the up-and-coming town area is soo empty. just a big slab of concrete with 1 or 2 sims walking by every now and then.

⋙ why do they want me to take a picture of a sacred grave... very strange

⋙ i wish toddlers could go hiking too. it would make sense for a parent to hold them the whole time, so the toddler wouldn’t slow the rest of the group down, but instead they just... leave the toddler at the entrance lmao

#casper was crying the whole time #asa was blushing bc of finn haha #everyone left sadie alone in the snow while they went on a long ass hike fjksjd #mikaela was barefoot #i loved every second of this omg ;-;

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ginkgomoon · 3 years

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After the Future (Season 2)- Song Analysis

So excited to start working on putting my music analyses out! Although I am very passionate about music, I hadn't chosen to study it in school, hence why I hesitated in even trying as I thought I would be lacking the musical terminology and knowledge to fully commit to a proper analysis. However, I did want to persevere, and after back and forth emails to a music teacher, I finally had finally gathered enough material to start the base of own personal analysis on the music tracks. The amazing teacher had helped me with the identifying musical parts of the songs, and I had to be the bridge to connect everything else together with MLQC in a way that would be appropriate to the lore and make it understandable for others to read. Music was and still is a big part of my gameplay. It invigorated so many emotions and I wouldn't be so connected to the game if it weren't for it. It is truly something to be appreciated of. Thank you to all the amazing people who helped made these amazing pieces of art.

If anyone had studied film, the arts, or literally is a fic writer, you would know that the sentence you write or shot you take is something of high value and intent that would contribute to the building of a particular work.

Music is the same. Everything is intentional and necessary. Everything you hear commits to a particular purpose/theme and the message you want to convey. The MLQC music tracks in particular have no lyrics, which accentuates the fact that the emotions, the connections and the information you gather comes strictly from the various instruments and sounds that you hear.

This, therefore makes music analysing much fun but a lot more complicated.

For example, without lyrics we have to be extra vigilant. A certain note or instrument could present itself and we might have to correlate that to something in the gameplay. Or, if a certain instrument represented a certain personality, we would have to expand on that, too.

This analysis includes the PV, which helps further develop the core ideas of Season 1 to Season 2.

Context (Spoilers of S2)

From Chapter 37, we arrive at the end of the first season-

Judgment Day.

MC chooses to crown herself as the White Swan QUEEN and saves the world from Comet X1917.

To do so, she must leave this world behind. She must bid farewell to the guys and turns back time... seventeen years back to her five-year-old self.

Onwards, to Season 2.

Guide

The dot-points (like this) are the musical terms/instruments named that you can hear. - Dashes underneath (like this) will be the storyline connection and interpretation to the music.

Analysis

After The Future is the track that is played as the bridge between Season 1 to Season 2.

Chimes enter. - This is not the first time we hear chimes in the tracks. It's also heard in Love and Vision (Season 1). - This represents MC's faith. Her presence. Her cause and effect's thoughts and actions. Her correspondence to everything. But most importantly, her fate.

Piano enters with chordal accompaniment - chord progression consisting of 4 chords (vi IV I V).

This piece is in E major (a lovely key! Nice and warm!) - We start to see MC with Shaw and Kiro, proceeding to say goodbye to them. We are still in Season 1. - It gives out an almost a saddening, nostalgic feeling. It's like piano is being represented as MC, as we always hear it in Season 1 music tracks.

Lush synthesised string section enters and builds the texture of the music suddenly. - This starts as she says goodbye to Gavin, Victor and Lucien. - This section is like the "ascension" for the boys' gradual realisation and MC's working towards the buildup for her confrontation that she must leave. - This can also be viewed as her ascension as QUEEN, as we can hear the violins and other instruments accompanying it becoming higher in pitch.

Chimes are being heard again as the last thing to "fade out". -MC wears the crown, and the coronation of the White Swan Queen is almost over.

“Love, is what makes me move forward.”

After a silence, electric guitar, drum kit and other instruments enter in a contrasting electronic, slightly rock-style and upbeat section. - This scene in the PV is brilliant, because MC had changed the course and fate of the world. Why and how? - We see a chessboard, exactly parallel to one another. Except the fact that everything use to be black, is now mostly pure white. - In chess, the pieces we play with are black and white. MC is not the Black Swan QUEEN, but crowned herself the victor as White. - This cut happens when the electric guitar picks up, almost symbolising the sudden change that MC makes on the world, therefore, affecting every piece in the board. - The guys can also be argued to be represented as certain pieces in chess (which I am looking forward to expanding on in a future post). - This triggers the happening of Season 2.

The piano improvises a syncopated melody in a mid-high register that sings through the many instruments playing at the same time. This is called a "tutti". - The piano (MC) is heard again. She's alive and kicking in this New World! It drives the rest of the now upbeat instruments, like how MC forges her way through into the world. - The drums accentuates the sense of "intrusion", as we see multiple shots of various locations in Loveland City, almost insights/premonitions to what we will encounter in the future. - MC is with the five guys again, looking bolder, and we can sense that she has changed in the New World, too. - Everyone just looks so good in the PV.

The combination of piano and strings create a more ‘classical’ feel that merge well with the more electronic-sounding instruments that enter in the second section.

The music starts to "ascend" again. - She had used her powers as QUEEN, and now in this world, she must strive towards to fulfil another purpose- to another set of promises.

The continuity of the initial instruments creates a sense of unity in this short piece, then dramatically fades. - This is ultimately representing the worlds that she has merged together to create this New World. - This shows that the unity of the worlds is over, the "reset" has begun, and MC must proceed to find the guys's "old selves". - And so it begins!

"What if... on that day..."

#IM HAVING SO MUCH FUN #IM ON A ROLL #I NEED TO STOP POSTING TOO MANY TIMES #SoundCloud #mlqc season 2 #mlqc spoilers #music analysis #mlqc music analysis #mlqc analysis #mlqc victor #mlqc gavin #mlqc shaw #mlqc lucien #mlqc cn #mlqc #mr love queens choice #love and producer

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nighttimepixels · 3 years

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TALK TO US ABOUT MASS EFFECT I HAVE BEEN AN INSANE MASS EFFECT/SHAKARIAN TRASH PERSON SINCE 20-FUCKING-11 AND LEMME TELL YOU THOSE FEELINGS HAVENOT TARNISHED A SINGLE FRACTION IN THOSE TEN YEARS OH MY GOOOOOOODDDSSSS!!!!!!!

I DEMAND A PLAY-BY-PLAY UP TO THE MINUTE OF YOUR REACTIONS TO EVERYTHING!!!!

you are so valid and I totally see why everyone I've ever mentioned it to loves the hell out of it

aksdjlsdfj I meannnn if you want to hear my rambling about it then hell yeah

Okay, gonna put this below the cut to save everyone else XD also- since I'm not leaving this Mass Effect obsession anytime soon, if you're not interested in seeing occasional posts about it, please feel free to block the tag "night plays ME"~

(mild spoilers ahead??)

((also for real I mean it when I say this is rambling as hell lol, apologies and no stress if absolute no one reads all this))

OKAY SO Mass Effect 1-

Stars help me, I was honestly hooked right from the start?? Like even in Legendary Edition (the combined trilogy just re-released in one "can play it on one system + minor improvements", for anyone who doesn't know) where it's smoothed out, of course it's obvious that ME1 is a decade old... but the foundation for these relationships are all there and gods I love them already.

Like - Kaiden right off the top is a delightful good fightin lad, what the hell. I've heard that he's viewed as 'bland' by a good portion of the fan community but I dunno, he's a delight and even more complex by the time 2 rolls around and you encounter him on Horizon, it was honestly Ashley I was way more meh about - mostly because before you can learn about her family history/etc, she comes off as hella xenophobic and I was immediately offended for my growing space family that she didn't like/trust all the aliens around, pfff.

(she gets redeemed a bit through further actions/evolving thoughts, but I thought in retrospect it was a bummer that they didn't flip the order there, give her a chance to be liked before the complicating factor of being so rude about aliens >:c that then she could grow from... ah well. Apparently she has a good arc but uh, let's just say I chose Kaiden at the "key junction" in the latter part of the game so I won't be seeing anymore of Ashley uh... anytime soon, haha.)

Garrus??? Is??????? The ABSOLUTE best???????????

I liked him from the start, I'm always a bit of a sucker for a rogue-detective "the system won't bring this bastard to justice, so I've got to" type and all their moral shadiness XD But he just gets better, honestly, and where I'm at in ME2 (right before the Reaper IFF mission, as of typing this, with everyone's loyalty!) I am only digging myself deeper into this hole-

-*wheezing* okay anyways -

Wrex is AMAZING I love fightin' middle-aged krogan bastard, gods. Liara is great too, I'm a sucker for a wlw relationship (playing fem!Shepard, so) - buuuut I'll admit she's a bit more one-note in ME1. Last week while I was still on ME1 I remember hearing (while trying to dodge spoilers) that her arc is really good, though. I think they leaned a little hard on the 'innocent but sexy' sterteotype on her (so despite the yikes aspect of a few of the things I've learned in ME2, lol, I actually really like the complexity that's been added to her character.)

Saved Liara first, so by the time I got to Noveria and had the standoff with Benezia there was the chance to have emotions over Liara having to face her TwT and of course, I made the questionable but quality decision to free Queen Rachni heheh. no ragrets

More than a blow-by-blow of my choices though I totally wanna take the chance to say that even in the mild jankiness of ME1 (goddammit, the Mako.... please..... please just go up this impossible cliff I just want to resource hunt-) the way that the lore, both obvious/key to main plot and the lesser/filler/background/world-building kinds... I just love it. It incorporates it well, you can go ham in the codex learning more, or just dive into the basics - it's clearly a complex galaxy (and they do an even better job in 2 of fleshing it out further), and it never really felt overwhelming. It was pretty natural figuring it all out-!

Plus the interesting implications of resource hunting amongst the sapient races, and the little side missions you better bet I did every one of- there's so much rich depth in the story if you do 'em!! (And that lead with that Keeper side mission...? Looking back, damn, clever foreshadowing-!!!)

And oh my gods, Ilios??? hell yeah. I loved that mission so much, especially having Garrus & Kaiden with me when talking to the hologram/computer, and more than anything, that last sprint in the Mako trying to get to the jump before it closed-???

yeet the boi-

Also mannn I love a good setpiece, and having to go up the side of the elevator, space-side?? such a cool setup!!

Plus it felt good having been Paragon enough (as simple as the good v bad vibe system is, I don't hate it, lol) to avoid one of the Saren fights, ngl. And the er, "second fight" with Sovereign-Saren.... hell yeah

... I'll admit I had to double check my choice re whether to save the Council. I did in the end, but I swear, sometimes the way they phrase things I'm like ".... okay but Garrus is right, defeating Sovereign is more important than these few leaders??????" woops. Listen, priorities, is all I'm saying..... (￣ヮ￣|||)ゞ

'Course later they emphasize (in ME2) that there were 10,000 people on that same ship and I was like well I wouldn't have second guessed if I'd known that, I mean c'mon-

Also I did indeed romance Liara in this one, so I got that scene ;Dc But,,,, I also knew by the end that I was totally gonna romance Garrus in 2 since he's an option then finally,,,,, lemme tell you the guilt as I waffled over whether to romance Liara bc of it. hahaha.

Aaaaand Mass Effect 2-

So I'm only up to right before the Reaper IFF Mission, so I don't know the ending, etc etc lol. That said, I've just finished every side mission I've found with the exception of the Shadowbroker Quest and the Arrival Quest (I've heard the latter basically leads into ME3, and the former is best either right before the Omega 4 jump or in postgame).

So from the start - fuck yeah fuck yeah what a high adrenaline start Shepard noooooo but also yes save Joker aH-

The motion comic too hot damn nice job

I loved this setup, seriously - especially forcing Shep into this situation, having to work with/for Cerberus, and the compelling reasoning given behind "why" they do what they do (I especially found it a good point that the Salarians have the Task Force, the Asaris the Commandos, the Turians the- etc... like, true, when you put it like that, having a similar group advancing human interests/solving human interstellar problems is pretty reasonable...). That said, I love too that it really isn't shied away from how Cerberus is nonetheless fucked up - or its at least done fucked up stuff.

Listen, I still think some messed up stuff is gonna be revealed in 2's endgame......... after that Horizon mission and the Collector's ship???? TIM I SEE YOU YOU SHADY MF-

aaanyways lol...

I'm so so glad on a gameplay level they nixed the Mako style exploration. A few Hammerhead missions are fine and a lot more focused than the slippery ass navigation in that glorified ATV, pfff. The probes are a neat way of getting after similar resources - and more importantly, having good levels and some good hubs (the Zakera Wards, Omega, Ilium, etc) is way way more fun than having a more 'sprawling' space that is.... a lot of empty nonsense, lol.

Then there's the fact that we get Joker right off the bat and you can interact with him so much - and him and EDI??? Get out gods I love them. Kasumi is so right when she says they sound like a bickering old married couple lol. I have a terrible feeling that some shit is gonna happen with EDI..... but I don't think she's evil as-is, at least.

Side-eying the hell out of those "access forbidden" parts of her that she doesn't even know.... and the fact that her AI core has a locked door access................... something's gonna happen gdi LEAVE OUR ADOPTED AI ALONE.

(Also Joker pls stop fracturing your thumb on the mute button)

Also please save me there are so many hot aliens in this game,,,,, the xeno/monsterfuckers really comin' through strong in the sequels............... doin' the lord's work........................................

In general, I love how many levels ME stepped up in two with complexity and interwoven narratives!! Like, to the point it'd be almost a drag to replay ME1, even though it was fun going through it (if occasionally a bit tedious with the cookie cutter rando planet science/mine facilities, lol). Like, just from how fun and interesting ME2 is, mostly! more of all the pre-introduced races, plus new ones, plus more filling in of intragalactic politics, and more interesting implications of all these space-faring races mixing....

Also gods WREX and his planet holy shit,,,,, fuckin' hell yeah my man get their shit together and also adopt Grunt yes good-

And Mordin??? My singing semi-evil scientist best friend forced to confront his choices more than he thought he ever would have???? With some of the best ongoing general report chatter of all the companions??

(when I tell you I choked on my coffee when I talked to him after confirming romance choice w/ Garrus and that 'pamphlet' and 'anaphalactic shot if ingesting-' kajsldkfjsldfjk)

Like, fuck, the fact that they actually dive into the mixed morality and horrors of the genophage, and you can confront Mordin on it, for good reason, yet he still stands his ground, until finally some bits of his loyalty mission seem to... affect him, and I'm guessing might set up things for 3 with him? Unsure, but either way, damn, the fact that they start to dig into it...

And Taliiiii my beloved forbidden alien wife TwT her loyalty mission was SO GOOD. I love how varied they all are?? Getting to defend her and discover what she'd unwittingly been a part of-!!

Zaeed is a bastard but tbh I love that he is and that he's unapologetic in him - and Kasumi omg, best thief. A heist?? Gods, yes- I love our couch lounge chats XD

Samara is..... illegally.......... she's an illegally powerful and beautiful and eloquent MILF...........................

(.... listen I'm sapphic as hell and I'm kicking my own ass for picking her up last aksjdlfksjdfl - but her loyalty mission, damn. And seeing how there's this interesting cultural subset, and the struggle with the Asari in that they unquestioningly accept/respect justicars, but also know that the impact outside their culture is a diplomacy nightmare waiting to happen-)

,.,,,,,T,,, Thane,,,,,

I am weak for morally implicated murder dads okay?? And that voice??? His mannerisms?????? How you first see him, and that prayer after assassinating her...???????? And his history/his people's history with the hanar, gods I love how messy it is, it feels so much more real!

Also Jack is a mess and I love her (and want to get her some therapy, omg), and her and Miranda nearly duking it out after you've done both their loyalty missions??? so good and makes a lot of sense-! Honestly I would love more interactions between teammates on the ship, but there's already so much the devs had to balance I can't blame 'em for minimizing, heh. But suffice to say I also love Miranda and Jacob, even if I'm softest for my alien crew XD Hell yeah Jacob, we'll get loud and spill drinks on the citadel indeed TwT

.... I could write a whole essay on how much I love Garrus oTL Perhaps because he and Tali are the throughlines from 1 on your 2 crew, I have some of the strongest feelings about them... but genuinely, he was one of my favorite companions in the first game, and how you find him as Archangel in two? Getting to help him fight his way out after he's gone nearly 48 hours straight fighting off three gangs alone, jfc. His vengeance quest and what can happen there.... That line? fuck me, that line -

It's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Grey? I don't know what to do with gray...

How DARE you come for my heart like this, devs holy shit

(also, some other choice faves so far from the series from him include We can disobey suicidal orders?? and This wasn't in my training manual... [in 1, if you have him with you @ th Thorian fight] and his whole.... pop the heat sink - in his romance ;Dc)

asdasdfksadjfkl like I said I can write an essay on him PFFF suffice to say I'm very looking forward to his romance scene and where things go in 3

But yeah gods I'm just gonna keep rambling if I'm not careful lol. Gods I don't even know what to talk about it's all so good and while I can understand people roasting the obviousness of Paragon V Renegade (v neutral) choices/alignments, I think they do a pretty damn good job in 2 of pushing it further - to the point that there were some times that I accidentally got renegade points and I wasn't that mad, haha. There's so much fun in the interactions that I just have a good time anyways~

I have so many thoughts about TIM (The Illusive Man) and Cerberus.... theories evolving galore............... and like, what the hell!! Omega 4 going to the center of the galaxy is such a cool twist, goddamn - though my heart still breaks at losing Kaiden (his line if you haven't romanced him?? about feeling like he lost a limb when he lost you??? holy shit.... but I also can't blame him for not trusting Cerberus to the point of it affecting his ability to trust Shepard... like fuck Shep go after himmmm) I'm really excited to see where that goes since he comes back in 3, and what the fuck happens with Cerberus bc while I love the fact that obviously there are a lot of people in it for the right reasons, doing good work, there are those that are doing the opposite, and I have a very bad feeling about where TIM will end up landing....

All that said though I need to do the Reaper IFF mission (where I'm lightly spoiled as to getting That Boy, but not how/what happens to make it so - just that it's apparently wise to have all your side missions done before getting him...) and the actual Omega 4 jump. So we'll see what happens and what I think about it from there heheh!

.... major kudos and genuine props if you made it here to the end, I am so sorry for not editing on condensing all this, and appreciate you so much ;w;

#night answers #night plays ME #(yes that's a purposeful pun lol)#((i sure have played myself by starting this series its so good aksdjflskjfd))

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gingermintpepper · 3 years

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After thinking it over for a bit, I've decided that I might as well do a proper underrated 3DS game rec list. I'm a bit of an ATLUS junkie and that's gonna be pretty disgustingly apparent in this list, but it's not my fault that they released hit after hit and all of them were duly ignored.

Due to tumblr's 10 image limit (and my struggle to keep motivated to do one thing for more than three hours) I'm definitely gonna have to break this up into parts and I'm fairly certain one of these lists is just gonna be MegaTen games lmao but I'd like to let people know about these excellent titles and see if I can't at least get people interested in them so they can get more traction.

So, without further ado:

Some 3DS Games that were criminally slept on (part 1)

Monster Hunter Stories

God, where do I begin with this game. Well, the basics: It's a JRPG spinoff title of the now widely successful and popular Monster Hunter series featuring a different take on interacting with the varied and intricate monsters populating the world: Riders.

Yep, instead of hunting the beasties, you play as a young rider who's completed their intiation ritual and can now bond with 'Monsties' as they've cutely labelled the usually ferocious monsters of the wilds. The great thing is that you still fight Monsters--tons of them in fact but this isn't a paid review and in my humble opinion, the most impressive thing about this game is the visual style. The landscapes, the armour, the way they redesigned and 3DS-ified the classically hyper realistic and monstrous beasts to not only be absolutely adorable but still capable of being intimidating when the time calls for it, the stellar animation of special moves and combination attacks--it's delicious, nutritious, stupendous, I can and will consume it like it's part of my recommended caloric intake.

It's very akin to Pokemon in the way its basic gameplay premise is set up, however, instead of catching--or even indeed befriending--the Monsties in the game, you rummage through their nests and steal their eggs, later hatching them and getting yourself a brand new lightly kidnapped monster pal!

Other general things about the game:

Pros:

The armour and weapon sets for both male and female characters slap along with the general character customisation options. They're incredibly diverse (though limited in body type) and you can switch around traits and features whenever you want from your house.

The POGS--these porkers are everywhere and they serve as tiny little achievements for exploring every odd and end of the world. Also they have little outfits. They're so cute. 🥺🥺

You can actually ride the Monsties. All of em. Or, at least the ones that you have available to be your buddies. They all have exploration skills and traits that not only make exploring much more interesting but encourage you to swap out your active Monstie and play around with your options a bit.

Y'all breeding Monsties is complicated and I live for just how intense and ridiculous you can get with optimal builds for these things.

The story is really competently put together! The characters, character designs and even the internal conflict with your starting trio of characters is really compelling along with the mystery of the blight that's infecting Monsters across the world. It's not anything worth awards but it's compelling and it makes you care about the characters if that's what you're in the market for.

Amazing sound design, expansive world, everything about the presentation of this game oozes that Monster Hunter charm even if the art is cutesier than usual. You'll never get bored of its stellar visual presentation!

Available for around twenty quid on the Google Play store, so if you want, you could actually get the full game on your smartphone or tablet. Note though that it would be a battery nuker.

Cons:

If you're on a regular 3DS, frame rate drops are a given. This game kinda pushes the visual capabilities of the 3DS to its absolute limit--a lot like Okamiden did back on the DS.

One save file :( It's pretty much for the same reason as above but still.

If you're playing as the girl, you can't get male armour and vice versa. Since there's only one save file, you'll never be able to have all of the armour sets in a single playthrough and that's criminal because both of the sets for the genders are absolutely breath-taking, thank you.

I 👏can't 👏make👏my👏 own 👏Palico👏

Multi-player for this game is pretty dead seeing as it's almost five years old by now and never got much press or traction. Usually this wouldn't be an issue - this game is 99% singleplayer and you don't really need to fuss about with multi-player to have fun, but if you want to collect all the Monsties, you'll need it since the only way to get Glavenus is through pvp achievements. :/

Final thoughts: Play it if you find yourself getting tired or disappointed with 3DS Pokemon games but still want something that feels as fantastical as Pokemon. It outshines the 3DS Pokemon games at every turn and I will never be over just how thoughtfully put together and fully realised these games are. Of course, if you've ever played Monster Hunter, then you know just how intensive these games are with the lore, biology, cultures and world of their Monsters but seeing that translated into JRPG format was just very sobering and it's a game that, to this day, continues to awe me with just how much love and attention went into it.

Last note: If you're still unsure about it, there's a demo available on the e-shop of the 3DS that allows you to play through the entire initial area of the game. Your data does carry through to the full release and to give you an idea of how much I've been able to squeeze out of it - my playtime for that demo is currently sitting at 22 hours. Make sure to get a hold of that Cyan-Kut-Ku!

7th Dragon III Code: VFD

The title may sound intimidating but the premise is not! A mysterious disease called Dragon Sickness spread by the Dragonsbane flowers that have cropped up all around the world. You and your team are recruited by the Nodens game company after you display extraordinary prowess in their hit virtual reality game 7th Encount. As you go through the adventure, you are tasked with finding out the truth behind the Dragon Sickness and asked to stop both it and the Dragons that are destroying the world.

This game is fun. It's another turn-based JRPG however, in this game you create all of your characters yourself from the myriad of classes available to you from the jump. Different classes of course have very different specialisations - Samurai focus on high powered cutting damage with their swords, Duelists are summoners who can influence the element of the battlefield as well as summon monsters from each element, Agents can hack into your enemies and inflict a barrage of nasty ailments, just to name a few - and you are given three teams of three characters each to experiment with different team comps and find the balance that works for you. There's also a wide variety of Dragons to hunt and kill in the game, which directly affects how infected your world is with the Dragon Sickness causing Dragonsbane. Along the way you will also come into contact with many interesting characters, concepts and confrontations that will make the task of saving the world all the more imperative.

Pros

1. The character creator and differing classes give way for tons of experimenting and playing around with your own unique approach to combat and carrying out your missions. Granted, 'character creation' is generous, it's little more than palatte swaps but the classes are really where VFD shines. Eight main classes may not sound like a lot, but the expaniveness of the character skills, their synergy with their fellow classes and the uniqueness of some of the classes in and of itself allows for so much flexibility and creativity in approaches to even tougher bosses. It also encourages the switching about of your party members to really finagle with the options available to you.

2. God this game is pretty. The locations, the character art, the creature design - all of it is gorgeous and this game capitalises on every bit of the 3DS's presentation limitations as it can.

3. You can romance anything and everyone - yes, you can even be gay/lesbian/poly in this game. In fact, one of the main characters - Julietta - is gnc and he's a constant source of joy as well one of my personal favourite characters, right behind Yuma.

4. Exploration is very very forgiving as the game has healing spots and teleport nodes all over the world to allow for quick, seamless travel between quest points without feeling like anything is too much of a hassle. There are also special enemies that allow for quick grinding as well as quick farming of money. In general, the game does a really good job of making sure that the grind is never unbearable or inconsiderate of your time.

Cons:

1. This is the fourth game in a series the West has never seen any other title for, and from the looks of it, will probably never see any other titles for. Because of that, there are some elements that may seem confusing or revelations in the plot that may seem to come out of nowhere.

2. While the visuals are great, the OST of this one is pretty short making for a lot of reused soundtracks that can get really annoying if you're like me and need your audio to be interesting or consistent so it doesn't distract you too much.

3. This one isn't really a con but it is divisive: This game gets pretty difficult at times. A few of the main dragon enemies including and especially the final boss can give you a serious run for your money in the annoy-o-meter in terms of the kind of absolute JRPG fuckery they can pull out of their magic bag of bullshit movesets and while I generally enjoy that kind of thing, I know it's not for everyone. Most regular combat shouldn't be too tricky once you have a team comp that works well together but you also need to pay attention since the same team that carries you to victory one time might be worth beans against another dragon.

Final thoughts: This is... a really good game. Interesting story, really interesting characters, pretty world and a battle system that really makes you sit down and think. There's also a demo for this available in the e-shop and while your data doesn't carry over - you do receive multiple perks for carrying over your demo data including some exclusive items that, while not game breaking, do help a ton in the early stages of the game.

This isn't a final list by any stretch of the word; I only have the energy to do these two right now, but the next games up for coverage are Ever Oasis and Stella Glow! If you're interested in my full plan of games I want to cover here then my current lineup includes: Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Project Mirai: Deluxe, Culdecept Revolt, Alliance Alive, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Etrian Odyssey V, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

Finally, if anyone has played any of the games I mention, cover or plan to cover PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I AM SO LONELY IN MY FORTRESS OF SAND. On a serious note, I'd love to hear what other people who've played these games think!

Thanks for reading,

-Ginger

PS: @feralpeacock Because a million years ago, on my first underrated games post, you asked that I remember you. :D

#ginger rambles #ginger talks about video games #monster hunter stories #monster hunter #code dragon iii vfd #video games #3ds #underrated games #These take so much energy to make holy shit #There are so many more amazing 3ds games I could talk about #But I legit just don't have the braincells for #Also I know Apocalypse probably has the biggest audience that played it out of all the games listed #But it's criminally underrated because it was different #So it's probably going to get it's own little review thing #Yeehaw

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repentantsky · 3 years

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6 Unpopular Gaming Opinions

I have a lot of unpopular opinions, and if you follow me on twitter, you might have seen a few recently. However, a simple tweet here and there hardly covers my opinions in gaming that might not sit well with people in this space. I know a lot of people get mad over differing opinions these days, but I have more unpopular than popular opinions, and I think I’d like to talk about a few.

6. If you’re mad about Pokemon games, you’re wrong

Yeah, I’m getting into it right away, and again if you follow me on twitter, you might have seen this once or twice recently, but getting mad about Pokemon to me, always seems foolish. Pokemon as a series has always been what we call a double A experience. Not quite an indie, but clearly not a AAA experience either. In other words, Pokemon is simple, and the crazy amount of Dexit hate, and other controversies about Sword and Shield, the most recent releases in the series are in my eyes, just plain stupid. It’d be one thing to be mad about something not being done if developers were in a similar situation as say, CDPR devs, but to our knowledge that’s not the case. Pokemon, fun as it is, isn’t that serious.

5. Western RPG’s are inferior to JRPG’s by default

There’s a simple reason for this. Games made with the western audience in mind, tend to have the same major flaw that a majority of western games do, they don’t explore the emotions of their male characters, espeically if the lead in a male character, half as well as Japanese RPG’s do. On the one hand, I get it, people still talk about FFXIII like the characters are bad, despite their “major flaws” in many people’s view in the west, simply being that they express their emotions openly. It’s a major problem in Western RPG’s though that the main character if male doesn’t show emotions, and that male characters that do, are seen as weak in the games themselves. This leaves female roles to carry all the emotional weight, which in turn pushes the male power fantasy too far in my opinion, and leaves the main characters boring. Many a western gaming fan would pick Geralt of Rivia as one of the best characters ever made, and while he does occasionally get to show some emotion, my pick would easily be more along the lines of Sora from Kingdom Hearts, or Rean Schwarzar from Trails of Cold Steel, because their emotions makes them more relatable and endearing.

4. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is better than Breath of the Wild

I’m of the opinion as it is, that Breath of the Wild is an overrated game. The climbing mechanics are frustrating, breaking weapons is annoying, and for all the world building and lore that Zelda has as a series, the story is a mess and can easily be told out of order. While Age of Calamity does tell an arguably less emotional story as characters fates are altered from Breath of the Wild, it also tells a more engaging one and characters being on screen longer than they were in the Breath of the Wild, also gives them more time to develop, and be characters we should care about. The Warriors format itself is pretty enjoyable as is, but combined with a story I was more invested in, characters I got to know better than Breath of the Wild ever tried to make them known, and just an overall superior representation of this version of Hyrule, it was simply just a better experience. I can only hope Breath of the Wild 2, ends up having that much story and that much fun gameplay to offer.

3. The Grand Theft Auto series, is kind of garbage

Now I’m really digging deep. The question is whether or not I’m just going off the rails, or digging my own grave. But seriously, these games are boring. The idea was novel at first when we finally San Andreas, be the bad guy, do whatever you want, all that. Sounds good, and it was kind of fun, but the problem is, GTA hasn’t really ever evolved past that. Sure it starts to look better, but the characters in it are stupid, annoying, and bland, games like GTA V don’t know when to end their main campaign, the series never really took the time to develop the few interesting characters it does have, like Franklin, because they just have to fall into the narrative of crime is good, and it’s just not a fun series because the controls aren’t great. You could do worse, sure, but you can also do better, and it doesn’t feel like Rockstar really wants to try. I’m sorry but the GTA games, are just boring and uninteresting after their novelty wears off.

2. Final Fantasy VII is just, okay, the remake is also pretty mid

To me personally, Final Fantasy VII is one of those games that really survives on nostalgia, and little else besides. Like, it’s a fine game, passable in the world of Final Fantasy as a whole, but some of it’s plots are not well handled or don’t seem to go anywhere, the ending kind of makes everything you do past a certain point completely moot, and Cloud’s pride is the cause potentially thousands of dead people because he didn’t back away when he knew he should have. Sadly, the remake doesn’t do much better. While it does give more detail to the story, and takes better care to make it make sense, it also is still pretty much the same story, and that’s boring to me. I’ve played this game, I know how it ends, (though possibly not in the remake) it just doesn’t grab me like it seems to have done for so many people. Even saying that, I still like the game a lot, because it’s Final Fantasy, and the series will always mean a lot to me, even the worst of it, but Final Fantasy VII, for me, is just okay, and the remake telling pretty much the same story again, doesn’t endear it to me.

1. The Last of us Part II, is fantastic

Yeah, something a little more recent to spice up this wild list, why not. The Last of Us Part II, is simply a fantastic game, with a well told story, fantastic characters, and great pacing. It doesn’t shy away from problems in our current society like sexual identity, it’s open to the fact that people are different than each other in ways that many people aren’t comfortable with, and it does it’s part to make open-minded people uncomfortable, by having them play as the woman that killed Joel. A lot of people who hate this game, seemingly can’t get past the fact that it does these things, and look at the game as it’s face value, which is sad, because if you’re willing to challenge yourself, you might find an amazing experience here. Yes, the gameplay isn’t the best, but just like the first game, the story is something far more in depth than anyone could have prepared for. It’s a masterful story, and a great send-off to Naughty Dog, who I personally cannot see myself supporting unless they change the way they develop games. Still, I admire what’s here, and what the developers did with what they were given.

And there’s some of my unpopular opinions, do you have any of your own? Let me know in the notes below, and share this if you feel so inclined. If you want to see more of my unpopular opinions, feel free to follow me on twitter @RepentantSky, since that came up twice, and have an excellent day.

#the last of us #the last of us part 2 #final fanatasy 7 #final fantasy 7 remake #gta #gtacommunity #gta5 #hyrule warriors #breath of the wild #JRPG #western #rpg #pokemon #nintendo switch #ps4 #ps5 #witcher 3 #cdpr #cyberpunk 2077

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whatzaoverwatch · 4 years

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The Hero of Numbani thoughts

finally got to finish the book and let me just state right away that this novel is severely being under looked. I was right to say that we should’ve gotten a two week event in dedication to this book because of how well done it is. I wanted to go bit by bit of what I liked about the story but I also want people to go and buy/read the book for themselves so it could not only gain the appreciation it deserves, but hopefully let Blizzard know that we need more stories like these. So the first half of this post will be spoiler free but I will put a read more for those who are interested on some tidbits of characters and plot points.

Spoiler free thoughts:

- Efi as a whole is such a good character. For a young genius you can really see her character grow from throughout the book. As she balances her friends, family and schoolwork to the dedication and dream to build the hero Numbani needs is done so well. You see her struggles as well as her high points and it makes her such a good character to enjoy.

- Orisa as well is such a likable character. The best way to describe her growth is very much a Baymax in Big Hero 6 kind of vibes. She is not just a blank slate, she has as much character and funny moments than you expect. You even gain some serious emotional moments later on that really grabs at the heart strings.

- Doomfist is such a well rounded character then what people give credit for. He is a threat, but he feels he is doing the right thing for his people. There’s a speech he makes at one point that really sets the tone on what he is doing and to me, it is such a damn good monologue that you have to read yourself.

- Lucio despite a much smaller timely appearance in the story really takes every moment he is in. You can see how much he is an inspiration to Efi and how he is very proud of what she and Orisa are doing. He’s just such a wholesome character how can you not like him?

- The side characters are amazing too. Efis friends are so likable and realistic to the point that they show how much Efi is maturing (almost too quickly). Even with conflicts that occur they are just the right lightheartedness in Efis life. Same with her parents as well as her cousin Dayo.

- The world building with Numbani and just the Overwatch universe itself is well thought out too. It gives it the right amount of detail to imagine this city built for omnics and humans together. Unity Day sounds so beautiful I wish they did an event with Orisas skin being Unity Day related.

Alright now to go into some read more SPOILERS that I really want to talk about. But like I said before PLEASE go and give this a read because it deserves the love and support

- There are a lot of name drops in this story including the original 5 strike team, Sojourn, and even Sombra. The whole Overwatch cartoon gimmick is just such a good concept that of course they would have a G.I.Joe esque cartoon based on the worlds heroes. Sombra has a dedication to the story but it’s more of background work in Doomfists plot. But you better believe I got hyped when Efi started to notice her

- While I sort of figured Bisi, Efis older cousin, is a Lieutenant of Talon from the getgo, I like the sort of implication of his character. He got himself involved with bad people much like Baptiste but he is so dedicated to Doomfist. In the matter of whether he will still take part after being nearly tossed aside by his mentor, I say it’s very much in the air. I can presume that people will want to see him as a future hero and tbh I wouldn’t mind seeing what kind of a person he would be.

- The fucking Lucio and Orisa vs Doomfist at the play concert was absolutely incredible. THAT is what I want to see in the lore is these characters teaming up and fighting with their styles.

- I have a feeling that the end of the story is heavily hinting that Orisa and Efi are about to join Overwatch in the recall given the choice of words. Especially with Lucio being recruited during the Rio mission in the Overwatch 2 gameplay.

#Overwatch #the hero of numbani #orisa #overwatch orisa #efi oladele

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therealtsk · 4 years

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okay so i think before I really start delving into this fandom I wanna give my thoughts on the game itself. so MUCHO SPOILERS FOR CONTROL. IF YOU WANNA EXPERIENCE THIS AMAZING GAME YOURSELF DO NOT READ THIS POST. You good? Alright, let’s go.

So. First, I wanna talk about the game-play of CONTROL. It’s fucking amazing. In a year where I played five incredibly strong games (Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War and of course, CONTROL), it was my favorite game. In fact, I think it might be my favorite game of 2019. It has something that all of the other games lacked, with the possible exception of U4...the core gameplay was inherently fun. The word “Next-gen” gets tossed around a lot in the gaming world, but this was the first thing I played that truly felt like it. The gameplay of CONTROL is at once simple and wildly different: I think I speak for most people when I say that the Launch ability is my favorite gameplay aspect: it just feels amazing to use, even after a year of playing it. It’s the closest I think a game has ever come to truly come (for me) to making me understand the sort of power the character wields in a way that isn’t superficial. From the sound design to the rumbles of the controller, to the superb animation, all of it comes together to make you feel powerful. It’s amazing. Okay so now that’s over, let’s talk about the world, characters, and story, the biggest reasons I love this game. As a long time fan of the more surreal and ethereal types of the supernatural, CONTROL immediately stood out to me with it’s central location: The Oldest House. What an incredible setting for a game, but also just what an incredible setting in general? When I walk through the hallowed halls of the House, I never feel at ease. I think it’s a fantastic combination of visual and audio design, but the House has a way of making you feel both unwanted and watched: even with all of the human touches the Bureau has scattered throughout the map, The House feels starkly inhuman- the ceiling too high,the doorways slightly too broad. Even after centuries of co-existing with humanity, the House has not quite adapted to humans. And yet there’s something also irresistibly compelling about wandering a place you know, logically, you probably shouldn’t be. It’s a fantastic way of putting you inside Jesse’s shoes: you feel both her fear and the powerful call of the unknown that beckons her to the darkest corners of the House. The Altered Items themselves are also just...fascinating. The twisting of the mundane into the paranormal- there’s a word I’m looking for, but I can’t find at the moment. I know some people got annoyed with all of the reading in the game, but personally, I loved scanning through every document, case file, and correspondence. Dead Letters in particular caught my imagination: I’ve never stopped thinking about the woman trapped in the phone since I read about it, I even turned it into an original short story. CONTROL’s world feels very much lived-in, like it has history and activity outside of the game’s story, which is crucial to the livelihood of any setting. Now, for the characters: Jesse Faden is perhaps my favorite video game character to date. I love her so much, words can’t describe, but I’m gonna try anyway. I love her sass, her jump-down-and-figure-out-a-plan-on-the-way-there attitude, her frustration and quiet sadness, her anxieties and ultimately- her love. Jesse Faden loves her brother so much that she literally threw away any chance she could have had at a normal, peaceful life and risked everything for him, not even knowing if he was still alive. As a proud brother of two siblings, It’s nice to see familial ties being just as strong in games as romantic ones. Speaking of romantic ones, Emily freaking Pope am I right??? The minute Jesse and her sat down at the table I was like :eyes: “these vibes...the chemistry...the delivery...” I don’t care what anyone says Jesse and Emily are gay for each other and you cannot tell me otherwise, just look at all of their interactions. Remedy thank you for giving me another ship to stan until i die The other characters are also amazing! I love my bois Simon Arish and Fredrick Langston, adorable dorks that they are. RIP Marshall but damn you were badass- also your long coat. Remedy make merch so I can buy it pls. As for the more supernatural characters: Polaris. Oh my god I love Polaris. My first assumption was that Jesse was speaking to us, the player, but learning the truth about what Polaris was and her own character was so fantastic- I would literally watch so much of just Jesse and Polaris communicating, the idea of humans and these...ethereal life-forms co-existing is just fascinating. And then there’s the Hiss. I have been obsessed with the Hiss since I first heard those words. You are a worm through time. Like...the idea of a malignant radio wave, burring into your mind and planting itself within you, overriding your thoughts with song...just fucking chills. I can’t wait to write about this audible horror.

Also just something I wanna note before I wrap this rambling thing up: CONTROL was not a game I expected this from, but I love how they handled representation in it: they never call attention to it or try to get clout for it, but they have a wide scattering of nationalities and a very even split of women and men: it was just so nice to have a game that didn’t feel dominated by dudes, you know? Anyway: the story. I think this is where the game lost a lot of people, but I thought the way that it unfolded was fantastic, and every ending (Base game, Foundation, AWE) has left me excited to see more. I think my favorite plotlines thus far comes from the DLC’s: The Astral Politics and, of course- Alan. Fucking. Wake.

But more on that in a bit. I think The Board and the presentation of them was fantastic: It’s so hard to for humans to write utterly in-human mindsets and persons, but I think Remedy’s team did a truly amazing job with The Board. Down to the method of communication alone, blasting divided concepts into Jesse’s thoughts that are literally shattering into synonyms because they don’t quite understand human language is just...aaaaaaahhhh, so good. And then The Foundation, my favorite DLC out of the two: So much expansion on the lore of both The Board and The House itself. The implication that The Board may, in fact, be just as much of an intruder as the Hiss are is chilling, and of course, The Foundation gave us even more Emily/Jesse ship fuel and development so like come on. As for the AWE DLC: I know a lot of people were disappointing with it, and I get that! Don’t get me wrong, when it ended, I literally went: “Wait, that’s it? That can’t be it.” I was expecting something roughly around the same length as the Foundation, and I think other people were too. Once I got over the initial surge, though, I sat down and really thought about it. Story and content wise, Foundation is 100% the better DLC. But gameplay-wise? Oh man, AWE was so much more thrilling. I think this lends to Remedy’s incredibly atmosphere building, but after spending hours of Control feeling like an unstoppable badass, for them to completely turn it on it’s head and make me feel like a rat trapped in a maze, desperately lunging for any light and being utterly terrified of the dark: god, what an amazing fight the entire Third Thing was. The Service Tunnel in particular had me shook, man. Was AWE short and felt more like a teaser trailer for Alan Wake 2? Yeah. Was it still really fun? Yes. And also, I think people missed out on how much lore we got for CONTROL, as well! Two words: Chester Bless. So, to sum this completely chaotic post up: I adore CONTROL, every bit of it, and I can’t wait to talk to you y’all about theories, fics, and the like.

#CONTROL #Control spoilers #The Foundation #AWE #Remedy

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anti-anti-a-la-bi-bi · 4 years

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Can you rant about pkmn sword? Rants are enjoyable to read

Alright, so it took me a bit to get my thoughts in line. Lets start with how I feel about the pricing: I am all for having 30 euro DLC over a third version for the full price, however, I do think that if they do that, as well as with the dex cut, they should quit with having there be two versions. Nowadays, with internet communication, it doesn't really do much for social interaction, it's just another hurdle for those of us who wish to complete the pokedex(and especially when they remove the GTS and make you pay for it later). It's still a scummy tactic, and no one will complain if there's just one version+DLC. It makes a big difference in the pricetag, since being forced to buy nintendo online, or two switches and two games to trade, are both mandatory payments to make in order to achieve one of the encouraged goals within the game. Furthermore, people within one family will likely be using the same cartridge, so if there is only one version, all in all, it'll make a huge difference for people who use a whole switch as a family as well. Also, I do not think that sword and shield are worth 60 euros. I think they're worth 30 at most, since the base game is worse than x and y/sun and moon. They also locked following pokemon behind a paywall, which is bullshit and yeah, fuck that. I think swsh are enjoyable, but not when they sell at the same price as games with way more content, games that look much better, and usually both combined. For what the switch can do, swsh look really bad, actually. There are a few pretty spots, but that's the exception, not the rule. To add on to things that I think are horrible; the raid battles, especially the more difficult ones, in single player. I don't have switch online, and as such, I need to do all raids alone. But, the raids are near-impossible in a lot of cases unless you get really lucky with the npcs and ai. I got two gmax Toxtricity by using wide guard with Zamazenta for over four hours until I finally got lucky for each. This is both to blame on the ai, and the horrible selection of pokemon. Pokemon that should have evolved at level 60, well, they are still in their first form, so you have magikarp and mudbray at a 5 star raid. At least have them evolved. They have good moves, yes, but their base stats are so low that it doesn't matter. Also, the shield mechanic. It is predetermined how much damage you can do, and if you land a supereffective hit, it's not unlikely for it to only do a sliver of damage and then the shield goes up. It's annoying, makes battles extremely difficult because a lot of npcs just won't attack while the shields are up, and it just becomes a waiting game if your pokemon is just there to act as support(such as my Zamazenta with wide guard to prevent Toxtricity from 2-hit ko-ing all my teammates). Also, the fact that even if you beat a gmax pokemon, there is still a chance not to catch them. It often takes ages to even defeat them, and then, 'Congratulations! You just wasted over half an hour of your life! Get fucked!'. I had this happen with Applin t w i c e. Also, the wild area is... It's okay, really. Nothing exceptional, my immersion is ruined by the sheer amount of pop-in, something that happens even when there aren't a lot of models on-screen, the Onyx in Motostoke being a rather infamous example. The trees look like shit, the berry trees look like they don't belong, to put it bluntly, it looks like something a student would make in unity. You'd expect something better from the highest grossing franchise in the world. The ai of the pokemon is often pretty bad, with them just moving in circles, I have seen so many synchronized pokemon at this point that it's just... Egh. Also, the customization options are still so limited? Can't choose eyeshape, can't choose clothes that actually make your character stand out, and you can't even choose your challenger uniform after you become the champion. Why does Leon get a special uniform? I have never seen a pokemon game so set on making you feel like a celebrity after you win, yet you don't get to have much of an identity in the game even after you win. It didn't have to be difficult, just a customization screen inside the dressing room of the Wyndon stadium, perhaps some extra clothing options? As for things I like: I like the atmosphere. The music, though sometimes repetitive, does help my immersion. The gym leader theme is dynamic, shifting with what happens in the battle, making me feel like I'm actually standing there, and the ambient themes work well as well, though those were rarely encountered at all. I love the characters, the trainer cards giving you some backstory on them, they are, together with the Unova leaders, the most present gym leaders today, with a history of their own. It felt amazing to just read the trainer cards(and I enjoyed making my own as well). The towns have their own themes, and while I can't remember the names, I do remember each location well. But. There was so much wasted potential. The castle in Hammerlocke? The large building in the east? Hammerlocke's castle: the vault, 1 room and a roof. The large building? Nothing. You don't even get to see the attraction inspired by the London Eye. Wyndon is so small??? It has a small shopping street, the stadium and the inn and that's about it. Castelia City was bigger than that. Overall, the game feels rushed. The gym challenges at the start were cool, but by the end it's more of "battle these trainers in a row haha". Also, the animations. Gamefreak claimed to need to remake all models(they did not, the 3ds models were used with better textures), and to make better animations(only for newer pokemon, most pokemon used their pokemon amie animations and further animations from the 3ds titles). The animations are still bad, especially for something as powerful as the switch. I enjoyed the lore behind the region, but I really, really dislike Dynamax. I like gigantamax because the pokemon usually changes in a way that is distinguishable, but regular dynamax... Nah. Give me mega evolution back, perhaps update its mechanics so it changes the gameplay more and requires more strategy, but Dynamax just feels like something that is so low-effort. Pokemon but beeg. The curry making, on the other hand, I love. Pokemon should not be a cooking game, but it made me feel like I was actually bonding with my pokemon, that they were present in the mc's daily life. I would love to see more additions like that, the possibility to become the kind of trainer you want. Enjoy swimming? Perhaps go for a swim with your pokemon? It doesn't need to be complex, but I'd just love to see my pokemon interact with each other and with my actual character more. The routes are too linear. The last route is literally a straight line with some trainers, with next to no effort in it. I also think that the handholding needs to be talked about. When you get to Motostoke and have signed up for the gym challenge, a staff member will lead you to the in, which is literally one screen to the left. Such examples are found all over the game, and I hate it. They do let you skip some tutorials, which is a welcome change, but characters are so willing to force you to stop with whatever you're doing and make you listen to their speeches that it still often feels like a slog, especially because you don't get to do shit besides gyms until the very, very end, in which the fucking champion tries to catch a legendary in a regular pokeball, not even a great or ultra ball. The lore is great, but the actual story is so nonsensical that I just didn't bother to pay attention. Hop literally recycles Hau's animations. I would love for him to have his own, so he'd feel more separate, because they ARE different characters, with different goals. But Hop is even more annoying than Hau because he just won't shut up. You walk 5 steps and he shows up somewhere, for no reason at all. Meanwhile, there's this big event going down, a crowd has gathered, you get there and... Leon has already resolved it. You just get a picture, that was what you wanted, right? That sums up most of the game 'the adults will deal with this!' . The picture doesn't even look good. Swsh is fond of just showing you pictures, for example, right before the climax when Rose and Leon are talking. There's no background music or anything, just pictures and the sound of the textbox. It feels so low-effort. Also, if you have a character that is a singer, and he uh, he sings, it MAY be a good idea to include VOICE ACTING. They had someone sing in Black and White 2! Surely they can do it on the fucking switch, several years later? The mouths flapping about just feels incredibly awkward. I would recommend the game if you can find it somewhere for cheap, not for the full price. There is enjoyment to be had, but it's subpar in comparison to other games for the same price. I may rant further depending on how much time I have.

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paubari · 4 years

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the HALO: INFINITE gameplay preview was AMAZING!

*Disclaimer: This blog post is my opinion on the matter. If you have a different opinion on it, I respect it all the same. A large chunk of the screenshots used were from the Halo Infinite Gameplay Trailer*

MABUHAY everyone and welcome to my corner of the internet!

It finally dropped. After a year of waiting in baited breath. Microsoft dropped their Halo: Infinite gameplay. They did it during their XboxGamesShowcase which aired live on 24th July 2020. It wasn’t a surprise that the first thing they featured was Halo. Besides it being a console exclusive. Halo is one of the few games that dropped a trailer that revived my love for the game. If you’re not familiar with the announcement trailer, you can find it here.

So before I fully geek out on this game, I’ll explain why the announcement trailer was a huge deal. You see after Bungie passed the torch onto 343 Industries, Halo was at it’s peak. (except for the failed MCC launch but we won’t go into that). For the longest time, Bungie was the sole proprietor of Halo and they called the shots. So it was a fond farewell when they announced that they were leaving, making Halo: Reach a heartfelt goodbye. Bungie pulled the cord by leaving us with a masterpiece. A game that goes full circle, a prologue to the entire series. Having played Halo CE (Combat Evolved), 2, and 3, it gave me such chills. I don’t care what people say with the gun design choices, Halo: Reach strikes a chord in my heart like no other game.

This is the reason why a lot of fans were skeptical about 343 industries touching such a precious project. Everyone felt like it was a fitting end but I guess money comes first for Microsoft. A majority of fans were disappointed with Halo 4. They revamped everything, EVERYTHING. From the armor choice to enemy design. It was like they tarnished the IP that Bungie curated so hard to perfect. You can argue that they were trying to make the game theirs but that’s moot. The game already has an established fanbase. If you suddenly change everything just to make it seem like the idea was yours, that’s disrespectful. I don’t even want to talk about Halo 5: Guardians. The lore was just thrown outta the window. Imagine putting the Arbiter in the game AND NOT HAVING HIM MEET CHIEF? Such a wasted opportunity.

If it wasn’t obvious yet, I no longer followed Halo after that abysmal display. I’m sure other people chose to not follow the timeline anymore which in turn would cause for sales to dip. That’s why I’m glad that when they released the Announcement Trailer, they managed to blend their design choices with Bungie’s. What came out was a “Old meets New” type of design and honestly, it brought a tear to my. Especially when the piano chords struck of the Halo CE theme. Plus, seeing that halo ring? CHILLS. I played the Original version of Halo CE so the callback was simply wicked. That’s why I’ll be comparing a lot of the released Halo Infinite gameplay to Halo CE. You’ll understand why soon enough.

“As Chief drops in, he immediately has his trusty Assault Rifle with him”

The Assault Rifle which has the same design as the Halo Reach one. That was a +1 in my book. Oh and this takes place on a Halo Ring so another 1000+ points in my book.

The gun sounds were okay, they sound pretty standard and I’m fine with them.

“Chief opens a Map showing important locations, upgrades, and database.”

So I was a bit surprised when a map was pulled up. Idk about Halo 5 but the other Halo games had NO maps available. Mostly because the level design previous games had were more of a linear type of story telling. EXCEPT Halo Combat Evolved. I remember playing the first level of Halo CE and I was confused as hell. I mean, I almost kept running around in circles just trying to find where the next objective might be. By the looks of this map, it seems Halo Infinite might be going the same route as it’s ancestor (Halo CE and Halo 3: ODST). A semi-open world map where you can carry out objectives the way as you please. Keep in mind this is speculation my part but if it turns out to be like that then...

“Chief has a grappling apparatus and pulls himself towards an armored Brute.”

“Chief uses his grappling apparatus to reach high places and scale past obstacles like a steep mountain side”

“Chief uses his grappling apparatus to pull an explosive barrel towards himself and proceeds to toss it at a mounted plasma machine gun.”

This grappling apparatus is such a HUGE addition to Chief’s mobility. In partner with armor abilities, this can seriously open up wondrous new avenues at how you can tackle each objective. Not to mention it pushes you to think more outside the box and use the environment as your advantage. Of course, if something like this is added, there’s a possibility for the combat to be more stressful. It doesn’t matter tbh as long as it’s fun!

“Chief equipped with what seems to be a shotgun/bruteshot looking gun while activating an objective ping that alerts the location of objectives onto his HUD.”

The Shotgun/Bruteshot gun looks like a cool gun to play with! From my observation, it fires slugs rather than scatter shots. Making it more precise more precise than the standard UNSC shotgun. Also observed are small marks on the HUD that points where an objective might be accomplished.

“From this shot it seems that Chief activates a modified Z-4190 Temporal Protective Enfolder/Stationary Shield originally found in Halo 3.”

The reason why I speculate it’s a modified “bubble” shield is because of the shape of the device tossed onto the ground. Plus the main enemy of the game are called the “Banished”. Which are basically a covenant group that were shunned from the original crusade. A large portion of their ranks are allegedly Brutes and Brutes were the ones carrying the “bubble” shield in the third game.

“Chief melees a Brute”

I obviously won’t end the blog post without talking about this particular shot. A lot of people were egging on 343 Industries because of this scene right here. They kept talking about how the game is lacking in textures. There are multiple reasons why the insults aren’t justified and here’s some of them:

This gameplay trailer might be a demo reel from an earlier build. That means that 343 is currently developing the game and this is the left over content that they could show at the time. I’m half expecting them to suddenly wow us so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

This game needs to run with backwards compatibility and cross-platform AT THE SAME TIME. Aka, it wants to be three things at once; Be available for an older gen of consoles, run on the new gen, and perform well on PC. So I can excuse if the game doesn’t have groundbreaking graphics like TLOU2, RDR2, and Uncharted 4. It needs to be a decent shooter game and that’s what it’s trying to achieve.

As a Halo fan who lost faith in the franchise, I can honestly say Job Well Done to 343 Industries. They’ve managed to bring a spark back into my heart and I will surely play this one. I look forward to see what more they have to offer and I’m genuinely excited for when they release the game.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post! If you like what I do here, feel free to give me a follow to stay up to date with my other blogs.

Always remember to make something amazing~

#Microsoft Xbox #xboxgamer #xbox #xbox live #Halo #halo infinite #343 studios #343 industries #console gaming #console gamer #blog #personal blog #blogs #personal blogs #blog writing #video games #video game blog #gaming

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teaandgames · 4 years

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The Tea Times - June 2020

Well, we’re officially over halfway through the year at this point. I know for many people it feels like we’re dragging ourselves over that point but try and keep your chin up. All bad things must end. In the world of games it’s been a rather packed month, with some high profile releases and some unexpected announcements coming out of the woodwork. Hopefully that’ll tide us over for the second half of the year where things will, hopefully, start to look up.

At A Glance

Valorant, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, Desperados III, The Last of Us Part II, Summer in Mara and Pokemon Cafe Mix released.

Resident Evil 8: The Village, Crash Bandicoot 4, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, Pokemon Unite, Pokemon Snap and Lost in Random announced.

Kingdoms of Amalur is getting retooled!

Rumour mill: Far Cry 6 and Batman!

UK strikes out at loot boxes!

Playstation 5 is revealed!

Cyberpunk 2077 Re-Delayed!

The Releases

My goodness there’s a lot to get through this month. Let’s begin with Valorant, a team shooter developed by Riot Games. Many team shooters have jumped up and been smacked right back down but Riot Games, the League of Legends lads, have some proper grunt behind them. I’ve heard a lot of positive chatter about Valorant, and seen some exciting videos, so there’s every chance. I’m too incompetent for these type of games but if you’re not then it released on PC on the 2nd June.

I’m also too incompetent for Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection but that’s not going to stop me. While it’s not much of a collection, containing only Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert, there’s a lot of love in the package. The retooled art is nice to see, while also preserving the spirit of the original. It’s a heavily nostalgic game and a reminder of when RTS games were about the base building and not screaming at your teammates. If you fancy a trip down a FMV-laden memory lane then it was released on the 5th June.

Desperados III caused some long forgotten light bulb to spark in my head, though I can’t really explain why. It’s a real-time stealth game set, rather unsurprisingly, in the Wild West. Was there much stealth there? My mind has been too corrupted by images of people blind-firing at each other with revolvers. Still, Desperados III seems to have an action element to it as well for when you’re bored of killing people and stashing their bodies. It’s also getting decent reviews too, which is encouraging. If you fancy some rootin’-tootin’ throaty slittin’ then Desperados III came out on Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the 16th June.

Summer in Mara is a funny one. It popped up constantly on my Facebook, sending me ad after ad. Normally this would turn me against a game but, in a rare twist, it actually got me pretty excited. It’s a farming game, with an exploring element to it and I am all about that. It also looks gorgeous, in screenshots at least. I actually didn’t realise it was out yet so I will soon be booting up either Steam or my Switch to get on that. I’m ready to waste another hundred hours. It released on the 16th June.

Well now here’s one that’s been doing the controversy circle. Released on the 19th June, The Last of Us Part Two was quickly subjected to review bombing. Possibly because it committed the cardinal sin of acknowledging that the LGBT community exists. Ah well. That nonsense aside, it’s picking up top scores and awards, much like its predecessor. It appears to be heavily story focused though the physics, by the look of it, are top notch too. If you liked the original then give it a whirl. It was released on PlayStation 4 on the 19th June.

Even more unexpected is Pokemon Cafe Mix. Not too much to say about this one, to be honest. It’s a pleasant little puzzle game about serving folks in a cafe, which is staffed by Pokemon wearing adorable outfits. It’s free to play, with microtransactions, and seems like a nice little game to kill a few minutes. It dropped on the Switch on the 23rd June.

The Announcements

It seems like every five minutes, I found another game that had been announced. Not least of all is Resident Evil 8: The Village. If you remember, I adored Resident Evil VII and I hope that the sequel carries on its spirit. It’s certainly in first person and the trailer gives me hope. It also has an old man in a flat cap with a shotgun which always gives me hope. The trailer is absolutely dripping with symbolism too. It should be coming out next year.

Next in line of the unexpected sequels to nostalgic games is Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, which has a trailer set to The Rockafeller Skank just to maximise that early 2000s nostalgia. As you might expect, it’s about time. That title has its tongue buried deeply in its cheek. It looks like a proper return to form too, with bright colourful graphics and a fresh Cortex plan to ruin. While I never got on that well with the Crash Bandicoot franchise, I know a lot of people will be excited for the return to form. It’ll be out on October 2nd.

Lord, they are cranking out Bloodstained games, aren’t they? Back in 2018, the original Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon came out, which was an old school Castlevania game in all but name. A companion game, Ritual of the Night, made things 2.5D. Now however, we’re back to Curse of the Moon with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. It looks like it keeps the old school Castlevania art style, which is nice to see. If you’re in the mood for an older flavour of game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 will be out on the 10th July.

The second controversy on this list is a new Pokemon game, Pokemon Unite. In this case, the ire may well be justified. Pokemon Unite is a MOBA, of all the bloody things, which is a bit of an odd move. It’s a pretty heavily saturated genre, full of big names, and I don’t honestly know how much market Nintendo will be able to carve out of that. Add in the fact that it has a definite connection to Chinese company Tencent (which doesn’t have the best reputation) and it goes some way to explaining the mountain of dislikes the video has gotten. Ah well. A release date has yet to be announced.

What is much more up my street is Pokemon Snap for the Nintendo Switch. The original was one of the highlights of my emulation days. Basically, you ride on a little cart through the world of Pokemon, taking pictures of them in their natural habitat. Then Oak looks through them and reveals how weak of a photographer you are. It’s not a game for everyone but if you always wanted to see Pokemon frolic around like normal animals then Pokemon Snap is your game. No release date yet, though.

Still not too sure about Lost in Random to be honest. I think I just like me some dice games. It’s set in a fairly dark world where people’s fates are decided by a roll of the dice, but it also has something of an upbeat tone in the vein of Tim Burton. It’s an action-adventure game, with some pretty heavy looking combat, set in a gothic fantasy world and all of those are good things. If you like the sound of it, then Lost in Random will be out next year.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Well this is one I wasn’t expecting. I did a whole piece about how the intellectual property had been handed around like a game of hot potato, even landing in the hands of the state of Rhode Island at one point. THQ acquired the property rights in the end and they’ve now announced that they are giving it a fresh coat of paint, which is being handled by the folks at Kaiko, who did the Darksiders remasters. So it should be fairly decent.

What confuses me is that the things they are working on are the graphics and the gameplay. The two things that Kingdoms of Amalur didn’t really suffer from. The game always looked pretty gorgeous, to be honest. It captured the spirit of a fantasy forest nicely. I never looked at it and thought, damn this needs retooling. Same with the gameplay really. It wasn’t anything amazing but it wasn’t screaming for a remaster.

Honestly, Kingdoms of Amalur’s biggest flaw was from the core design. The huge open levels with bugger all in it, quests that didn’t really do anything interesting and long lore dumps that put you to sleep. That’s not really going to change if you’re just doing surface level stuff. Still, we don’t know for sure what they’re changing so you never know. The remastered version should be out in August.

The Rumour Mill - Exotic Locales And Batman

The first of our rumours this month revolves around Far Cry 6. The latest entry Far Cry 5 was set in North America and revolves around a cult, which probably hits a little too close to home for some people. If that’s not your bag then you’ll be pleased to know that Far Cry 6 will be set somewhere more exotic. No exact details at the moment but I imagine there will be sunshine and clear waters. It’s also supposedly due to be released before April next year, COVID19 depending. If the rumour is true, we’ll hear more about this on July 12th.

For those more interested in the caped crusader then you may be interested to know that there’s a good chance of Warner Bros. announcing two Batman games in August this year. This rumour is fuelled by the fact that two domains have been registered. They point towards two titles, ‘Gotham Knights’ and ‘Suicide Squad’. The second one is more obvious and probably inevitable, given that we’ve had a whole film about them. Not sure about Gotham Knights though. We should hopefully have more info at DC’s fandome event on the 22nd August.

UK Says Loot Boxes Are Not OK

Following on from the example of companies like Belgium, UK ministers are asking for a review of evidence with regards to Loot Boxes in games. The issue comes from the definition of Loot Boxes as gambling. It’s not an unreasonable definition, as it encourages people to put in a varying amount of money for the chance at getting something rare and exciting. Everybody wins, of course, but most of the time it’s basic stuff that entices you to try again. Sounds like gambling to me.

People aren’t too happy with advertising gambling to under 18s so this decision has a lot of weight to it. If Loot Boxes are declared to be gambling, then games will be required to remove them or change them up so they can be sold to under 18s. They may even remove the games entirely. How enforceable that will be remains to be seen but it will likely make it harder for multiplayer games to be marketed in the UK. Not a happy thing but we’ll have to wait and see what the evidence says.

The Sleek, Sexy… Router?

Well here’s an interesting one. Sony released their first images of the PlayStation 5 design this month and people are already disagreeing with it. I can see why. It’s a very sleek, futuristic design. Minimalist white and grey in an obelisk like shape. I’m in two minds about it myself. On the one hand, it’s quite sleek and attractive. It doesn’t look like a ‘console’ which I think is a good thing. It looks memorable.

On the other hand it looks like a wireless router. You’ll have to make your own mind up on this one.

Re-delayed

Just a quick one to end on. CD PROJEKT RED are fully committing to making sure Cyberpunk 2077 is ready to go. To that end, it’s been delayed back to November 19th. They’ve been fully transparent as to why as well, which is refreshing. Essentially, while it’s good to go content-wise, they need extra time to go through everything and iron out those bugs. A good reason, as reasons go.

They did however release some new gameplay trailers to keep people going, so make sure to check those out to remind yourself why it’s worth waiting until November! That’s all for June, see you in July!

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thisyearingaming · 4 years

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1997 - This Year in Gaming

Muggins here was born in ‘97, and can’t really remember much of it, natch. But there were some good things released this year - I’ve played every one of these, and have missed so many more.

Diablo - Windows, January 3rd

We start with dungeon-crawl-em-up and well-loved out of season April Fool’s Joke, Diablo. I’ll be totally honest - I don’t like Diablo that much. It’s absolutely fine, I just can’t get into it. The writing, setting and characters are all very good especially since this year only marks the beginning of games being seen as a bit more adult and intelligent. Check out this gameplay from Hour of Oblivion on YouTube, and marvel at the faux-Scottish accent on Griswold the blacksmith.

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Mario Kart 64 - Nintendo 64, February 10th

Compared to its more recent versions, Mario Kart 64 is a veritable bloody relic of the past - solid controls and a quirky style mean it’s still a crowd pleaser to this day, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone right now that would die on the hill of it being their favourite single-player racing experience. It’s also got some of the deepest, impenetrable lore in any medium known to the human race - why exactly is Marty the Thwomp locked up here?

Blast Corps - Nintendo 64, February 28th

February’s position as most boring month of the year is shaken up a bit by having a uniquely designed Rare game slammed into its 28-day long face. Blast Corps is the puzzle-action game where you take control of several vehicles to destroy homes and buildings in order to prevent a nuclear warhead exploding in the coolest incarnation of Cold War politicking ever seen in a video game. Calling Blast Corps a “hidden gem” these days is like calling Celeste a hidden gem - it impresses nobody and makes you look like a dick.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - Nintendo 64, March 4th

The N64 was home to a surprisingly large number of above-average shooters despite its muddy graphics and small cartridge space - Turok is one of these, a great FPS game where you shoot the SHIT out of dinosaurs. Brett Atwood of Billboard said it was like Doom and Tomb Raider mixed - Doom Raider, if you will. I say it isn’t - there’s no demons, and there’s no polygonal breasts to poke dinosaurs’ eyes out with!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Sony PlayStation, March 20th

What is a retrospective? A miserable little pile of opinions. I’ve only recently played through SotN for the very first time on a TOTALLY LEGITIMATE copy with a CRT filter. Bloody good (geddit?) game, that takes the repetition of its predecessors, improves on it in basically every conceivable way, and combines it with special effects and graphics that even 23 years later had me going “ooh, that looks quite good!” Symphony’s music and audio design are wonderfully paired with a deeply enjoyable experience that’ll have you saying “mm, maybe just one more room?”

Tekken 3 - Sony PlayStation, March 20th

Also releasing from the Land of the Rising Sun that day was Tekken 3, which many believe is still one of the best fighters ever made. Tekken 3′s combat is so fast and responsive that it’s better than some games made today. T3 is also the best and easiest way to knock seven shades of absolute shite out of your friends without risking a massive head injury or a trip to the headmaster’s office... where you could also challenge him, but only if he plays as my favourite Not-Guile-or-Ken character in gaming, Paul.

Sonic Jam - Sega Saturn, June 20th

The moment Sega realised that re-packaging old Mega Drive games would net them serious cash - although unlike later collections, this is a strictly Sonic affair, and has a neat little 3D world to run around in as a sort of hub world. Sonic X-Treme proved that Sonic Team would have to work hard at getting the fastest thing alive into 3D space properly: Jam is the sort of test ground for it too. It features some genuinely good emulation work for 1997, although it’s basically the gaming equivalent of going round to your grandparents at Christmas only for them to give you the exact same gifts you got in 1991, 1992 and 1994 but wrapped in a bow to make you think it’s different. What are you lookin’ at, you little blue devil?

Star Fox 64 - Nintendo 64, June 30th

So there’s this German company, right, called StarVox. Nintendo look at Europe and say “shit, we don’t want another lawsuit... after all, we’ve done three this year!”. So they give us in the PAL region the exciting title of Lylat Wars which as far as I know means absolutely fucking nothing in the context of the game. They’re still called Star Fox in-game too so what was the point? Anyway, fun 3D shooter with graphics that’ll make you do a barrel roll off the sofa and onto the power button to make the brown and green blurs a little easier on the eyes. Hello 2007, I’ve come back to make old references with you!

Carmageddon - Windows, July 30th

The game so scary it was BANNED in the UK! More like the game so fucking shit it was banned. Carmageddon is so deeply boring to play on PC that I can only imagine that Stainless Games made it tasteless by 90s standards simply to ramp up demand - much like another game we’ll be covering soon.

Herc’s Adventures - Sony PlayStation, July 31st

“And they said Kratos was the best hero? Shish... they got it wrong, sister! Hercules is clearly better... he even has a coconut weapon.” A surprisingly fun overhead action game that most people only know for... well, I’ll just embed it.

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Mega Man X4 - Sony Playstation, August 1st

A few years ago I tried playing every Mega Man game there is - I gave up at X3 because I was getting bored. Even still, Mega Man bores me - but at least the level design is good. Stay away from the Windows port. Pictured: me in the background yawning.

GoldenEye 007 - Nintendo 64, August 25th

The name’s Intro. Overused intro which I also managed to fuck up twice through the deeply editable medium of text. GoldenEye is like the Seinfeld of console shooters - playing it nowadays you’re unlikely to be amazed but holy shit there’s some absolute greatness in this game. Every sound and every piece of music in GoldenEye is permanently seared into my brain - sometimes I’ll just hear Facility or Frigate in my head alongside the door opening sound and the gentle PEW of the PP7. I mean come on, fucking listen to this and tell me Grant Kirkhope isn’t cool as all hell.

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LEGO Island - Windows, September 26th

The first open world experience I ever had was LEGO Island. It’s still quite good today, utterly deranged animation from the likes of the Infomaniac and Brickster - a cautionary tale for children that giving pizza to high-profile criminals is disastrous for the human LEGO race.

Fallout - Windows, October 10th

War never changes, but franchises do. Fallout’s legendary status in the industry is exemplified in how different it feels. Yes, we had the game Wasteland nine years prior, but until September 97 there was nothing quite like Fallout. From the chilling introduction sequence showing the ruins of the United States to the tragic ending, Fallout is an exercise in pure human misery with the brightest spots of hope it can possibly muster thrown in for good measure. What begins as a tedious isometric point-and-click RPG ends as a minigun-wielding power fantasy, before your entire worth is stripped from you at the finish line. You have 500 days to find a water chip before it’s too late, but you’re constantly being fought by terrifying Super Mutants, irradiated animals, and the biggest monster of all - humanity. See what I did there? If anything, humanity in Fallout’s setting would be the greatest unifying force possible against the horror of the outside world. But how is it? It’s dull, it’s sluggish, and it’s really hard to get into even if you’re already a fan - but push through that and it’s worthwhile to see exactly how far the series got before Todd Howard said “eh fuck it” and had the whole thing dipped into an FEV vat.

Grand Theft Auto - Sony PlayStation, October 21st

To put it simply, the first in the GTA series is now nothing but a novelty. It has an irritating camera, wonky controls, poor graphics and deeply repetitive gameplay. But thank fuck it exists, because without it the Rockstar story may have been very different indeed. It’s quintessential cops and robbers gameplay, spanning across Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas in one game, but with maps so far removed from their modern incarnations they may as well be named “Not New York, Possibly Bristol and Orange Town”. People really fucking hated Hare Krishnas in the 20th Century, didn’t they?

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - Sony PlayStation, October 31

A hard one to talk about, honestly - it’s more Crash and better than the first one. It looks great, and Crash controls so well compared to his first outing. It’ll also keep you playing for 100%, fiendishly addictive and unashamedly difficult. Had a weird cover that moved with your head.

PaRappa the Rapper - Sony PlayStation, November 17th

Type type type the words into the box! (Type, type, type - uh oh - the box?)

PaRappa is a gorgeously stylised rhythm game about rapping to steal the heart of the girl of your dreams - which involves learning karate, getting your driver’s license, selling bottle caps and frogs, making a cake, desperately trying not to shit yourself, and finally performing live on stage. Every one of its segments is so well-produced that they’d genuinely sell like ghost cookies in this era of shite rap. Notable for producing the greatest Jay-Z backing track ever made.

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Sonic R - Sega Saturn, November 18th

Sonic R is absolutely FINE with vibrant textures, interesting levels, neat gimmicks and decent controls. But I’m gonna talk about its fucking AWESOME soundtrack by Richard Jacques and T.J. Davis, an eclectic mix of Europop and New Jack Swing - even thinking about it is bringing tears of absolute joy to my eyes hearing Super Sonic Racing in my head. You’ve got the main theme, Living in the City, Can You Feel the Sunshine, Back in Time, Diamond in the Sky, Work It Out and Number One - all of these are absolute club bangers and genuinely wouldn’t be out of place in a 90s disco.

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Tomb Raider II - Sony PlayStation, November 18th

Lara Croft returns to single-handedly endanger every species on Earth. TR2 is really good, the exploration and puzzle-solving aspects of the first game expanded upon here and the gunplay remaining just as punchy. Lara’s got a fully-functioning ponytail which absolutely boggles the fucking mind - a lot of work went into Lara’s hair for the 2013 reboot, so I can’t imagine the amount of man hours it took to get fluid(ish, come on, it’s the PS1 we’re talking about) hair movements in 1997.

And really, that’s all I played from 1997. I’ve left out big hitters like Quake II, Gran Turismo and Diddy Kong Racing, but I simply haven’t formed an opinion on them yet. Maybe in a future post.

Thanks for reading.

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