I managed to complete one round in Monstrum . I nearly quit a couple times, because wow this game can be frustrating. But I made it through in the end, once I got a better idea of where certain items would be and how the monsters vibe. I'm kind of glad I stuck with it for a couple days; it made escaping that much more satisfying.
The Spectrum Retreat seemed intriguing, so I gave it a go. It was not quite what I was expecting, and I'm not sure I really liked it. The set up was a little odd, in my opinion, where you would have a bit of story and then a block of Portal-like puzzles, sans the humor. The puzzles weren't really all that difficult, but they seemed disjointed from the story, which in itself was vague and left me with a lot of questions. I guess I shouldn't have expected much for a game built around puzzles, but still.
Also played through The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux. I gotta say, the story is not at all what I expected, in a good way, although I'm not sure I'm a fan of the ending. Walking between areas was a little tedious, but the scenery was absolutely beautiful, and the sprint speed was a lot better that most walking sims I've played. It kind of reminds me of What Remains of Edith Finch or Dear Esther, both of which I also enjoyed. I think I might play this again sometime just to take screenshots.
I'm not sure what game I'll be playing next, but Diablo 4's Season 5 is coming up next week, so I'll probably dip back into GamePass to see what's on there.
It's an Unreal Engine 4 remaster! I haven't played the original so I can't really compare, but I have read that they added some additional dialogue lines as well.
Started playing God of War (2018) again. I played through it twice on the PS4 and now playing through it for the first time on the PC. This is the best God of War game in my opinion.
The World of Warcraft Pre-Expansion Event went live this week, and it was complete garbage. The event got changed two days later, which fixed basically everything wrong with it, and now it’s pretty good. I managed to level almost all my level 60 characters to max through the event, since it barely takes an hour each. Basically none will ever see any serious playtime though, and will just collect dust again.
Then I just finished the Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Lost Valley DLC and enjoyed it much more than the base game. The gameplay is still D&D, no changes there, but the setting is much smaller this time. You’re not on some world-saving quest or killing a god, but a very confined area, with about a dozen locations you can visit (plus sub areas like caves or dungeons). Your party gets trapped in a valley and has to find a way out. There are people living in the valley, complete with a city and everything, but there’s kind of a civil war going on, so you gotta pick a side and which faction to support. Due to my choices, the ending was kind of unspectacular, but still fine. Since there are multiple factions, who are at war, and you can’t please everyone, there’s stuff you can’t do in a single playthrough (mainly quests and dialogue, not locations I think). Since the DLC is on the shorter side, you’re encouraged to play through it multiple times, but I most likely won’t do that. I do however look forward to the second DLC campaign, Palace of Ice, which I’ll probably won’t play for a few months.
Next week, Diablo 4 Season 5 will start, which I look forward to. This time I’ll play a Sorcerer. Let’s hope it’s not another bust, like the Minion Necromancer last time.
Three of four Pro Pinball games are available on GOG. They’re probably on the more realistic side of pinball games, effectively simulating a single table down to aspects like scratching, aging and blemishes. That’s all optional though, you can just install and play. I don’t know how well they’ve aged since it’s been a few years since I last touched one of them. But I’ve always found them fun, with great visuals and sound, even though I’m pretty inept at pinball in general.
I’ve been progressing through Divided Reigns. Very indie, retro JRPG. The story reminds me of FFIV & FFVI in good ways. Battles are much more involved then the aforementioned classics though: while remaining turn based there are plenty of types, effects and skills involved. A rage meter brings in some form of planning ahead between turns, somewhat like Octopath Travellers or Bravely Default. All around solid game. Only downside is the dialogs being sometimes pretty silly.
Been playing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla as well. So here’s my theory: inside Ubisoft there are two wolves. The first wolf is made up of thousands of creative, talented, diverse artisans working hard to make the open world formula fun and beautiful. The second wolf is a handful of suits looking for ways to milk the first wolf’s output for money in all sorts of shit ways. I’ve found out that if you put the Ubisoft launcher in offline mode, you’ve blocked the second wolf. As for the game itself, it remains faithful to the series. There are some welcome improvements, such as the end of garbage equipment loot. In terms of storyline, I can’t say I’m feeling especially involved so far. There is a certain cruelty to the protagonist which I struggle with. On the other hand I must also say that at times the game feels unapologetically woke which I thoroughly enjoy. The side quests are also super goofy.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - I'm back on my bullshit again. Uzuki arc was fun, but when it comes time for bracket I gotta lock in. And by lock in, I mean still play like a clown.
Splatoon 3 - Didn't have too much time to practice this week, but had one good session. Really trying to work on more actionable callouts, coordinating with our specials and planning a push together rather than merely announcing things after they happen.
Persona 4 Golden - Still just post-Kanji dungeon. At the rate I am going I will finish this game... someday.
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story - Man, forgot how annoying it was that you have to always go for weapon breaks against bosses or else you miss their blueprint forever. Also, RHDN shutdown has me wondering, if/when the third game's translation patch ever gets finished, where do I even look to find out about it?
Slay the Spire - I can quit any time I want, I swear.
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Came dangerously close to losing my Master 1 rank on Soul, but got a few wins so I'm safeish now. I know I'm too reckless and I'm trying to work on that. I did play one of the best games I've had at club this week, had the discipline to fold several tempting hands and it turned out to be correct every time. Sometimes protecting second place through smart play is more satisfying than lucking into first.
Still having fun with Helldivers 2. Player Base dropped but still around 40k in the meantime (don’t look at Steam Numbers only, there are console players too). There are constant updates and a big one is coming mid August.
I decided to give a chance to Super Virus Defense. It was made by the brother in law of my best friend, but it was described as tower defense so it sat ignored for over a year. I play on PC, but it’s very mobile like. I’m addicted. There’s a grind element to buy upgrades, but it’s been so non mindless that it reminded me of how big companies just choose to make you suffer. Specifically, I can grind while completing higher difficulties in previous levels or by playing the endless mode.
Playing it made me want to create a post with all the Brazilian indie games that I really liked over the years.
I will use this opportunity to sing the praises of HiFi Rush, because that original game deserved so much better than it got. Probably would have gotten it as an indie game too.
Big companies avoid risk too much, they want to make revenue, not games. I haven’t been interested in any AAA game in some 10 years. They’re all just the same open-world, microtransaction-DLC, soon-to-be advertisement platform with uninspired gameplay features.
Independent developers on the other hand are innovating and making cool and fun games.
I’ve been playing the new Solium Infernum with a friend - the first playthrough I did not particularly enjoy (partially my fault for not playing the tutorial first) but once I learned the mechanics my second game was more fun. The UI is not very smooth to use and there are some mechanics I don’t like, but overall pretty good.
I also picked up Mindustry again last night - it’s an open source Factorio + Tower Defense + RTS that is rather addicting… The new campaign they added a couple years ago is better than the original too.
Looks awesome! and the fact that the dev is starting from a place of having the pathfinding algorithm figured out is promising. Better to start there, rather than end up like Cities: Skylines with abysmal frame rates that even top-end hardware can’t keep up with.
I’m not sure how I feel about the artstyle yet. It certainly looks gorgeous in screenshots, but I wonder if it will be difficult to read when you are actually playing. Camera rotation will be the key for me, personally. If I can’t rotate the camera to get alternate views, that might be a dealbreaker.
It will probably allow you to rotate the camera every 90 degrees like cited Rollercoaster Tycoon. At least that’s what I would expect from a game with this kind of graphics.
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