Been playing a new save of The Witcher 3 on my Steam Deck, had played on/off from 2015-2017.
Had originally finished Heart of Stone Expansion, never got to Blood and Wine. Knowing there is another one ahead has motivated me to start a fresh save and do all content.
Oh nice. I think I’ve used those all before. I don’t usually do a realism run, but the odd time I get the itch for a Bosmer hunter with as much realism as possible.
finished Super Metroid last night, and I'll probably go back to A Link to The Past. never played any Zelda title before so I thought I'd check what the fuss is about.
Just started Cyberpunk. I gave it a go a little while ago on PS5 but it just didn't do it for me with the controller. I'm only an hour in and I'm already a lot more comfortable with mouse over stick. Keyboard will take a little to adjust to since its been a while since I've played anything resembling an action game with one.
Finally tried Vampire Survivors. Surprisingly fun to chill with. Only other bullet heaven I've played is Megabonk, but now I'm kinda getting into it. Might be impatient and try Arms of God next for the Doom+Warhammer vibe.
When taking a break from studying at uni today I went to sporcle on my laptop (pro tip: use ublock origin), hopefully anyone nosy enough to spy on me was impressed at my flag-guessing skills. And y9u know what? I'll do it again tomorrow, maybe I'll try and name every country in the world again
If you haven't already, push off mods as long as possible imo. They can really open up the game but they can also easily remove some of the magic. They're like a different game entirely
So, I just figured out I can plug in a PS3 controller to my desktop and RPCS3 accepts it for motion controls basically out of the box for my setup. This means I recently got back into Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time. Literally felt softlocked at the very first motion control section before this!
I finished Signalis, very Silent Hill-esque story, much better than Silent Hill F's IMO. I need to dig deeper and check the rest of the endings, I got the Promise ending.
I started playing Rule Of Rose and the gameplay is quite clunky, however I like the setting and atmosphere and the story is vague but interesting so far.
I just finished Control. I really enjoyed it. I haven’t finished a game since Borderlands 3 (what letdown that was). Now I think I’ve got my gaming mojo back. What would y’all recommend next?
If you enjoyed Control then there is a whole universe of other Remedy games you could potentially explore, culminating in Alan Wake 2. Would highly recommend.
I believe the game is intended to be played without it, but there is a little secret that can give you more time.
::: spoiler I don't remember if the game ever actually tells you this, but maybe you pick it up somewhere
Play the Song of Time backwards to make time move at half speed
:::
I don't think it's intended to be played without that tip. It is technically possible to miss, but you're very likely to learn about that before the game even tells you how to save...
(Mind you, I've only played the N64 version. They might have changed things in a re-release.)
::: spoiler Majora's Mask (how that tip is usually learned)
The game offers to tell you about that any time you talk to the scarecrow, which people usually do on the way to the observatory for the first time.
The trickier bit is that they tell you about it before you're capable of using songs, so you have to remember that you can actually use it once it's possible to do.
Just finished Alan Wake American Nightmare. Not too special; glad it was short. I'm pretty far into Abiotic Factor but only play co-op with my cousin so that will be a bit still. I am just starting Cyberpunk 2077.
American Nightmare was an Xbox Live Marketplace game I think, and that low budget kind of really shows. It's fine for what it is, and I do enjoy the live action recordings of Ilka Villi getting to let loose a little bit. I would never recommend it in isolation, but I think it's worth playing on the way to Alan Wake 2.
I think Alan Wake 2 is in my top 5 of all time. Gameplay isn't anything special - at least the combat (it's a competent but ordinary survival horror) but the story, presentation, cinematics, mixed media and in general just the art aspects are all top shelf.
It also is the culmination of the Remedyverse stuff, and really pays you off for having played all the preceding games (including Max Payne and Quantum Break).
I’ve been playing Morrowind again, finally actually giving the main quest a good chance. I’ve tried getting into it almost every year and it’s never clicked for me but this time it finally did. I’m having a blast with it.
Whatever you do next in Morrowind, get yourself OpenMW NOW, a vanilla friendly overhaul pack (the graphics overhaul is absolutely insane AND installs automatically via their mods page/nexus) and Tamriel Rebuilt. This will blow your mind.
I’ve been running OpenMW already and it’s been great. I haven’t added any extra mods yet, figured I’d do that with a second playthrough. Tamriel Rebuilt looks awesome, I’ll definitely try that one. Thanks!
I have a Halloween-themed recommendation this week: Kingdom of the Dead is a fun little boomer shooter with stylized graphics. It's playable on Steam Deck (I had to change the controls), but I'd recommend playing it on a larger screen.
Started up a new save of Bloodborne on pc and talk about a fine wine. Unfortunately I kept on experiencing freezes/crashes via ShadPS4/BBLauncher, so I've put it down for the time being. I've heard about the newfangled decomp/recomp that lets you run it natively, but idk, I don't really think that scene is for me.
Otherwise I've been chipping away at Dredge and am considering a new playthrough of The Case of the Golden Idol. Never got around to the DLC with the latter, but also just going back through the base game to see all of the artwork again sounds like a good time.
Also, if anyone has recommendations for horror games that aren't Resident Evil or Silent Hill, I'd love to hear them. Can be action horror, survival horror, scary horror, cozy horror, and so on, I'm interested in it all.
Ah cool, I've played the first one and enjoyed it quite a bit. Wouldn't be the first thing that comes to mind when I think of horror, but I get where you're coming from. Reminds me of David Lynch stuff with it being unsettling and dreamlike, so kind of spooky.
If you mean you already played ResE and Silent Hill but want something similar, Signalis seems to be very inspired by ResE. Either way great horror/survival game
It's not outright horror so much as horror-themed (as in: the game isn't really scary) but I will recommend Withering Rooms to anyone and everyone who listens.
One of the most impressive solo dev games I've played. Super fun, interesting world building, gorgeous music, immaculate vibes.
Two of the main inspirations for it are Silent Hill and Bloodborne, I forgot to say. You should absolutely play it, it's phenomenal. Sequel is out in Early Access as well as we speak, although I would recommend waiting on the full release next spring. Needs a bit more time in the oven.
Easy Delivery Co. has been on our radar for a bit, it being on sale pushed us to grab it. Really cool vibe to the game and it hasn't been too demanding in what it asks of the player, at least so far. - Vire (vi/vim)
I was highly disappointed in the game, I loved the vibe and the idea and yeah if you take a closer look
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler
At the beginning of the game
:::
you realized fast whats the plot twist gonna be, but it felt like a fetch quest. In the end I cheated money (easys save state edit) to skip play time to get to the ending faster.
I still think this game has a LOT of wasted potential.
Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker. I’m playing through all of them out of order. The controls in the Master Collection are a delight compared to the PSP port on Vita (they didn’t opt to utilize both sticks for some reason).
Yeah, that's just backwards compatibility doing its thing so I doubt anyone touched the game in any way beyond testing it works. It would be more surprising if they did put in the work to add the second stick support.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice (I had similar problem with The 3rd Birthday) but it's not really a proper port so it's hard to blame them. Good thing the later re-release fixed that so at least you have an alternative.
I like it. It’s great having all of the games on physical cartridges (I opted to do this on the Switch), and so far everything’s looked and played great. The bonus material is nice, but some of the games are super janky as I’m sure they were originally — there’s a reason they’re bonus material.
It’s neat to see how all of the games have functions that eventually got incorporated into The Phantom Pain but also frustrating in that they’re inconsistent with movement: crouch-walk in this one but no crawl, crawl in this other one but no crouch-walk, etc. Overall, I’m really glad they re-released all of these in one go with only minimal tweaks for the current-gen.
I can see how going through the games back to back could throw one off with gameplay changes, they did not take it easy with each new game that's for sure. I can only imagine how much weirder playing them in chronological order would be.
It's cool to know they did a good job with these collections, I might have to give them a shot as well some day. Thanks!
After more than 500 hours spread over 6 years, many multi-month breaks and 7+ characters I finally managed to finish the base story of Cyberpunk 2077. I went through 3 endings The Path of Least Resistance, The Sun and The Devil - even at the very end things would not go perfectly.
The intro section before the choice and The Path of Least Resistance ended up with my V spouting random lines every 30 seconds during the normal dialogue due to one of the mods I used (dependency for others).
The Sun crashed during its epilogue. Also, Rogue and her gun disappeared during the boss fight (not in the intended way).
My ability to scan bugged out during The Devil. I couldn't finish the final part and had to watch it instead.
Despite these issues all of the endings were pretty engaging though I can't say they hit as strong as they could under better circumstances. Between multiple partial playthroughs, already finishing the game through Phantom Liberty and being spoiled on the main points of all of the finales, there was just too much going against having a full experience.
As for The Star, I'm leaving it specifically for my next playthrough as my canon ending for the game. Before that happens however I intend to spend A LOT more time in Night City. As mentioned last week, I'm planning to start from scratch just to enjoy myself as a random NPC living their life whenever I feel like it. It might take a few months or a few years, the important thing is that I already beat the game so the pressure to progress is no longer there.
I'm doing a proper setup this time too - mod manager, serious testing and no mod list changes after I start. It should help with instability and other issues I had to deal with this time.
Anyway, that's that. Not as emotional as I'd like but the feeling of closure is just as important. It's certainly better than disappointment. Now to sort through all of my pictures in search for something worth keeping...
Personally I really enjoyed the secret ending path into Temperance. But I really like Johnny, and the relationship with V, I suppose. I kind of hate the Sun ending, it feels antithetical to Vs emotional journey and while it is fitting for the genre and setting it feels like a devolution of V and just in general succumbing to Night City.
Oh, right! I did both The Sun and Temperance actually, I forgot they represented separate epilogues and just wrote based on the final gameplay section.
I agree about The Sun. though I suppose it depends on how you played the character. If someone didn't engage with all the elements about finding a purpose outside of "being a legend" and instead stuck to anger and the need to lash out at "the bad guy" (Arasaka) then I can see it fitting quite well.
I wouldn't want it as a proper ending for my V but being an NC legend never really interested me so losing that goal and switching gears towards something more personal was pretty easy.
As for Temperance... I like Johnny (by the end of the story) and I like that going this way gives him an opportunity to try again as a better person. I still prefer my V to have an option to make the best of their limited time while surrounded by their new family but I appreciate it as an option nonetheless. It definitely felt the most bittersweet and (positively) emotional out of all of these to me. It would probably be my choice if not for the "bail out with your bros" option.
::: spoiler Cyberpunk ending spoilers
I like the bittersweet nature of Temperance. Especially as chosen after the secret ending path, that way nobody else gets hurt, too. There is something poetic and beautiful to me of V and Johnny storming Arasaka Tower as a solitary duo, with Johnny cheering on, as contrasted to the very first scene he appears in in the opening. And I don't know, V learns to stop fighting and accept mortality, Johnny gets a second chance... I just like it.
I get the appeal of the Star ending. I do. Especially if you romance Judy (Judy romance plus Sun ending is extra miserable, though). But I guess Star is a little too close to "happily ever after" for my preference in this setting. It's a nice riding into the sunset, leaving Night City literally and metaphorically for V and the player, but such a happy ending (especially with the throwing the player a bone bit about a potential cure with some technomancer) feels oddly almost inappropriately happy for the setting. Actually I think in some ways the Devil ending might be the most appropriate, especially for some Vs. I mean I hate it and it's terrible, but it's also awesome and so, so cyberpunk. And it hits some nice notes with the themes, the misery, the desperation for life, the true nature of SoulKiller, destroying the Johnny engram only to become an engram yourself, the corps always win...
::: spoiler Cyberpunk spoilers
I agree with the first part but I don't really see bailing out as "happily ever after", personally. A "happily for a short time V has left", sure, but not as a fully happy ending. Is there a minuscule chance for V? Maybe. I just can't take it as anything more than wishful thinking considering even the best tech and doctors from Arasaka and NUSA have huge trouble doing anything about the construct.
I don't have a source on hand but I believe Mike Pondsmith said something akin to "Cyberpunk isn’t about saving humanity, it’s about saving yourself" and that's something I really like about the Star. A small ray of good in a terrible world, after everything we've been and seen throughout the game.
I feel like taking the genre as pure doom and gloom makes it less interesting to be honest. Humans have a wonderful ability to find happiness in and make the best of the worst situations one can think of, I don't see why that shouldn't be the case in Cyberpunk. It's one of the very few ways a normal person can "triumph" over corporations and whoever else runs the world in Cyberpunk - by finding a little bit of happiness in a world constructed to suck out your soul.
Sorry if my writing is a bit incoherent on this, I need to think about it a bit more before I can put things into words right.
I do enjoy all of the endings in their own way and, as you said, work well for different kinds of V. I also think they work well as different takes on the genre:
Devil - you can't win.
Star - you can find something good even when things are bad.
Sun - take your chances and go out swinging.
Temperance - even a loss can lead to something new.
Or something like that. Again, I'm going to need a lot more time to sort out my thoughts about this whole thing.
:::
That's a very thoughtful reply. I would expect nothing else from you.
::: spoiler spoiler
I think the one thing about Star that irks me is that line about a potential cure. That is the one that makes me feel like they're just throwing a copium-bone to the players that desire it. If it was just about travelling away from the hellhole that is Night City and spending your last days with your newfound family in peace, then I would like it a lot more.
:::
::: spoiler Cyberpunk
I just can't take it as a serious possibility so it doesn't really bother me but I can definitely understand that. I wonder whether it was an attempt to make this ending feel more like an equal alternative to other options instead of giving up to die in peace, or if they tried to make it into a good/positive ending like you said. I'll have to look around if anyone on the team talked about it since launch, it would be interesting to get some insight on that.
:::
Great mix of twinstick / "Bullethell" Shooter and action adventure gamed like the old top doen Zelda games.
Not to easy, not too hard and the game respects totally your Time (no unnecessary fetch quests and it always helps you out where to go when you forgot it)
Can highly reccomend it and I think i gonna do a second run on hard mode after I am done :D
Bought Ravenswatch for $2 and change yesterday. Link for anyone that wants it
It’s a top down rouge-lite RPG where you play as fairy tale characters. Game consists of 3 levels, with a limited time to scout the map for gold, upgrades, and to level up before you’re forced to fight the level boss.
Game supports multiplayer and crossplay.
Went in with no expectations, and me and a couple friends ended up having a lot of fun. Plan on playing more later this week.
The theme is pretty cool. Like Little Red Riding Hood, but she can change into a tank-y werewolf. Gepetto, but he builds Pinocchio automatons. Pied Piper and he uses swarms of exploding rats. Etc.
My nephew spent the weekend here so I installed Kiborg from my backlog for some mindless fun. It's pretty decent. Good roguelike upgrade variety. Enemies are varied enough as well. Bosses are nothing to write home about. Story is barely there. All in all perfect for the occasion.
RimWorld released a beta of the upcoming 1.7 version that moves to their new Waylith engine, granting massive performance gains over the old Unity builds. I haven't done a real playthrough since before the Anomaly and Odyssey expansions released, so I'm thinking now's a good time to revisit the game. I've heard Anomaly was kind of disappointing, but here's hoping Odyssey is the less buggy vanilla version of Save Our Ships 2 I've heard it referred to as.
Though I'm not looking forward to rebuilding my mod list after all this time. Anyone have mod recommendations for someone who's been away from the scene for a few years?
It took me so long to figure out how to not lose money (a few years ago). Now I play for a good while, but eventually get bored and give it a break. But it is fun.
I'm irritated at the DLC. They seem a little pricey for what you get, which is a couple of buildings and a couple of other things, introducing new systems which is fine but..... like......... it's too much specific stuff and not enough general stuff.
So I ahve a couple of the DLC and that's all, and that's fine.
I also picked up Stray on sale and it's fun so far.
And I picked up Vintage Story, although I'm struggling to find food so far. meh. But it's pretty, so I'll keep working on it.
79 replies
Been playing a new save of The Witcher 3 on my Steam Deck, had played on/off from 2015-2017.
Had originally finished Heart of Stone Expansion, never got to Blood and Wine. Knowing there is another one ahead has motivated me to start a fresh save and do all content.
Heavily modded Skyrim.
I love heavily modded Skyrim. Which mods are you running?
About 170 of them. Not able to list them all right now, but I go for a heavy realism run, so Hunterborn, Campfire, Last Seed, Frostfall are mainstays.
Oh nice. I think I’ve used those all before. I don’t usually do a realism run, but the odd time I get the itch for a Bosmer hunter with as much realism as possible.
finished Super Metroid last night, and I'll probably go back to A Link to The Past. never played any Zelda title before so I thought I'd check what the fuss is about.
Just started Cyberpunk. I gave it a go a little while ago on PS5 but it just didn't do it for me with the controller. I'm only an hour in and I'm already a lot more comfortable with mouse over stick. Keyboard will take a little to adjust to since its been a while since I've played anything resembling an action game with one.
Finally tried Vampire Survivors. Surprisingly fun to chill with. Only other bullet heaven I've played is Megabonk, but now I'm kinda getting into it. Might be impatient and try Arms of God next for the Doom+Warhammer vibe.
When taking a break from studying at uni today I went to sporcle on my laptop (pro tip: use ublock origin), hopefully anyone nosy enough to spy on me was impressed at my flag-guessing skills. And y9u know what? I'll do it again tomorrow, maybe I'll try and name every country in the world again
Picked up Stellar Blade because I like games with pretty girls in them. Turns out the actual gameplay is utterly phenomenal.
I just started playing Minecraft, now I see why it so popular!
If you haven't already, push off mods as long as possible imo. They can really open up the game but they can also easily remove some of the magic. They're like a different game entirely
Agreed, I have see twitch streams of it modded and idk if I ever want it to look like that. Vanilla looks pretty bad ass already imo
Elden Ring but my Controller got Stick drift 😞
Stick drift? Here is an easy repair tip!
Step 1) order a new one from Amazon
Step 2) get the new one from Amazon out of the box
Step 3) put the old controller in the box
Step 4) retour your controller with stick drift
Step 5) fuck Amazon
Step 6) eat the rich!
It was a Birthday present and not from Amazon. Also it was a Doom the dark ages Special Edition 😞
But yea I should look into a getting new one
So, I just figured out I can plug in a PS3 controller to my desktop and RPCS3 accepts it for motion controls basically out of the box for my setup. This means I recently got back into Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time. Literally felt softlocked at the very first motion control section before this!
I finished Signalis, very Silent Hill-esque story, much better than Silent Hill F's IMO. I need to dig deeper and check the rest of the endings, I got the Promise ending.
I started playing Rule Of Rose and the gameplay is quite clunky, however I like the setting and atmosphere and the story is vague but interesting so far.
I just finished Control. I really enjoyed it. I haven’t finished a game since Borderlands 3 (what letdown that was). Now I think I’ve got my gaming mojo back. What would y’all recommend next?
If you enjoyed Control then there is a whole universe of other Remedy games you could potentially explore, culminating in Alan Wake 2. Would highly recommend.
Majora's Mask! Intimidated by the time limit, but also excited to figure everything out
My favorite Zelda game! Possibly my favorite game of all time.
I believe the game is intended to be played without it, but there is a little secret that can give you more time.
::: spoiler I don't remember if the game ever actually tells you this, but maybe you pick it up somewhere Play the Song of Time backwards to make time move at half speed :::
Thank you for the spoiler mark, I'll come back and check it if I'm struggling. I'm still at the beginning right now.
I don't think it's intended to be played without that tip. It is technically possible to miss, but you're very likely to learn about that before the game even tells you how to save...
(Mind you, I've only played the N64 version. They might have changed things in a re-release.)
::: spoiler Majora's Mask (how that tip is usually learned)
The game offers to tell you about that any time you talk to the scarecrow, which people usually do on the way to the observatory for the first time.
The trickier bit is that they tell you about it before you're capable of using songs, so you have to remember that you can actually use it once it's possible to do.
:::
Space Engineers 2, Terraria, Warframe
Sifu
Restarted my second RDR2 playthrough because a mod broke my savegame :(
If anyone else is playing, DO NOT install SgtJoe Bank robberies; it breaks interiors.
I'm back on my shit with Stardew Valley again. Modded this time, mostly tweaks and graphics but also taking another whack at SVE.
Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. After this I'm selling my ps5. Probably my last console. I'm very happy with my steam machine
I think having a "blue ray player" is always a good option. That why i never sold my ps3 :D
How is the performance on the steam machine?
I never owned a single blu-ray film 😅 before Machine my most powerful pc was Deck, so I'm impressed by performance 😁
Just finished Alan Wake American Nightmare. Not too special; glad it was short. I'm pretty far into Abiotic Factor but only play co-op with my cousin so that will be a bit still. I am just starting Cyberpunk 2077.
American Nightmare was an Xbox Live Marketplace game I think, and that low budget kind of really shows. It's fine for what it is, and I do enjoy the live action recordings of Ilka Villi getting to let loose a little bit. I would never recommend it in isolation, but I think it's worth playing on the way to Alan Wake 2.
Yes I decided to play it as a run-up to Alan Wake 2 :) how is that game? Its on sale ATM so should probably grab it now.
I think Alan Wake 2 is in my top 5 of all time. Gameplay isn't anything special - at least the combat (it's a competent but ordinary survival horror) but the story, presentation, cinematics, mixed media and in general just the art aspects are all top shelf.
It also is the culmination of the Remedyverse stuff, and really pays you off for having played all the preceding games (including Max Payne and Quantum Break).
Driver: Parallel Lines!
Driver 76 was one of my favourite games on the PSP but somehow didn't get around to play the other games until recently.
I'm still making my way through Dragon's Dogma 1. A bit grindy with having to rank up multiple base classes to get all of the desirable passive skills
I’ve been playing Morrowind again, finally actually giving the main quest a good chance. I’ve tried getting into it almost every year and it’s never clicked for me but this time it finally did. I’m having a blast with it.
Whatever you do next in Morrowind, get yourself OpenMW NOW, a vanilla friendly overhaul pack (the graphics overhaul is absolutely insane AND installs automatically via their mods page/nexus) and Tamriel Rebuilt. This will blow your mind.
I’ve been running OpenMW already and it’s been great. I haven’t added any extra mods yet, figured I’d do that with a second playthrough. Tamriel Rebuilt looks awesome, I’ll definitely try that one. Thanks!
I have a Halloween-themed recommendation this week: Kingdom of the Dead is a fun little boomer shooter with stylized graphics. It's playable on Steam Deck (I had to change the controls), but I'd recommend playing it on a larger screen.
Just saw the screenshots... Wishlisted :D
Started up a new save of Bloodborne on pc and talk about a fine wine. Unfortunately I kept on experiencing freezes/crashes via ShadPS4/BBLauncher, so I've put it down for the time being. I've heard about the newfangled decomp/recomp that lets you run it natively, but idk, I don't really think that scene is for me.
Otherwise I've been chipping away at Dredge and am considering a new playthrough of The Case of the Golden Idol. Never got around to the DLC with the latter, but also just going back through the base game to see all of the artwork again sounds like a good time.
Also, if anyone has recommendations for horror games that aren't Resident Evil or Silent Hill, I'd love to hear them. Can be action horror, survival horror, scary horror, cozy horror, and so on, I'm interested in it all.
Control is the first horror anything (game, movie, book, etc) that made me click the lights on. If you haven't already played I'd recommend
As in Remedy's Control?
Correct the first one. Something tells me I'll still love the sequel that just came out but it won't be the same atmosphere
Ah cool, I've played the first one and enjoyed it quite a bit. Wouldn't be the first thing that comes to mind when I think of horror, but I get where you're coming from. Reminds me of David Lynch stuff with it being unsettling and dreamlike, so kind of spooky.
If you mean you already played ResE and Silent Hill but want something similar, Signalis seems to be very inspired by ResE. Either way great horror/survival game
I've given Signalis a go a couple of times and for some reason it hasn't clicked for me. But maybe I'll give it another try, thanks!
It's not outright horror so much as horror-themed (as in: the game isn't really scary) but I will recommend Withering Rooms to anyone and everyone who listens.
One of the most impressive solo dev games I've played. Super fun, interesting world building, gorgeous music, immaculate vibes.
Looks like it could be up my alley, thanks for the rec!
Two of the main inspirations for it are Silent Hill and Bloodborne, I forgot to say. You should absolutely play it, it's phenomenal. Sequel is out in Early Access as well as we speak, although I would recommend waiting on the full release next spring. Needs a bit more time in the oven.
Easy Delivery Co. has been on our radar for a bit, it being on sale pushed us to grab it. Really cool vibe to the game and it hasn't been too demanding in what it asks of the player, at least so far. - Vire (vi/vim)
I was highly disappointed in the game, I loved the vibe and the idea and yeah if you take a closer look
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler At the beginning of the game :::
you realized fast whats the plot twist gonna be, but it felt like a fetch quest. In the end I cheated money (easys save state edit) to skip play time to get to the ending faster.
I still think this game has a LOT of wasted potential.
Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker. I’m playing through all of them out of order. The controls in the Master Collection are a delight compared to the PSP port on Vita (they didn’t opt to utilize both sticks for some reason).
Is Vita version a proper port or just running the PSP version, like Persona 3 Portable for example?
I think it’s just running the PSP version.
Yeah, that's just backwards compatibility doing its thing so I doubt anyone touched the game in any way beyond testing it works. It would be more surprising if they did put in the work to add the second stick support.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice (I had similar problem with The 3rd Birthday) but it's not really a proper port so it's hard to blame them. Good thing the later re-release fixed that so at least you have an alternative.
How're you finding the Master Collection overall?
I like it. It’s great having all of the games on physical cartridges (I opted to do this on the Switch), and so far everything’s looked and played great. The bonus material is nice, but some of the games are super janky as I’m sure they were originally — there’s a reason they’re bonus material.
It’s neat to see how all of the games have functions that eventually got incorporated into The Phantom Pain but also frustrating in that they’re inconsistent with movement: crouch-walk in this one but no crawl, crawl in this other one but no crouch-walk, etc. Overall, I’m really glad they re-released all of these in one go with only minimal tweaks for the current-gen.
I can see how going through the games back to back could throw one off with gameplay changes, they did not take it easy with each new game that's for sure. I can only imagine how much weirder playing them in chronological order would be.
It's cool to know they did a good job with these collections, I might have to give them a shot as well some day. Thanks!
Final fantasy IV: The after years
I'm working my way through every FF game (except the mobile gachas) getting 100% the achievements and it's my current.
It's slow hunting all the bestiary but gives me something else to focus on while my wife rewatches whatever show
After more than 500 hours spread over 6 years, many multi-month breaks and 7+ characters I finally managed to finish the base story of Cyberpunk 2077. I went through 3 endings The Path of Least Resistance, The Sun and The Devil - even at the very end things would not go perfectly.
Despite these issues all of the endings were pretty engaging though I can't say they hit as strong as they could under better circumstances. Between multiple partial playthroughs, already finishing the game through Phantom Liberty and being spoiled on the main points of all of the finales, there was just too much going against having a full experience.
As for The Star, I'm leaving it specifically for my next playthrough as my canon ending for the game. Before that happens however I intend to spend A LOT more time in Night City. As mentioned last week, I'm planning to start from scratch just to enjoy myself as a random NPC living their life whenever I feel like it. It might take a few months or a few years, the important thing is that I already beat the game so the pressure to progress is no longer there.
I'm doing a proper setup this time too - mod manager, serious testing and no mod list changes after I start. It should help with instability and other issues I had to deal with this time.
Anyway, that's that. Not as emotional as I'd like but the feeling of closure is just as important. It's certainly better than disappointment. Now to sort through all of my pictures in search for something worth keeping...
Personally I really enjoyed the secret ending path into Temperance. But I really like Johnny, and the relationship with V, I suppose. I kind of hate the Sun ending, it feels antithetical to Vs emotional journey and while it is fitting for the genre and setting it feels like a devolution of V and just in general succumbing to Night City.
Oh, right! I did both The Sun and Temperance actually, I forgot they represented separate epilogues and just wrote based on the final gameplay section.
I agree about The Sun. though I suppose it depends on how you played the character. If someone didn't engage with all the elements about finding a purpose outside of "being a legend" and instead stuck to anger and the need to lash out at "the bad guy" (Arasaka) then I can see it fitting quite well.
I wouldn't want it as a proper ending for my V but being an NC legend never really interested me so losing that goal and switching gears towards something more personal was pretty easy.
As for Temperance... I like Johnny (by the end of the story) and I like that going this way gives him an opportunity to try again as a better person. I still prefer my V to have an option to make the best of their limited time while surrounded by their new family but I appreciate it as an option nonetheless. It definitely felt the most bittersweet and (positively) emotional out of all of these to me. It would probably be my choice if not for the "bail out with your bros" option.
::: spoiler Cyberpunk ending spoilers I like the bittersweet nature of Temperance. Especially as chosen after the secret ending path, that way nobody else gets hurt, too. There is something poetic and beautiful to me of V and Johnny storming Arasaka Tower as a solitary duo, with Johnny cheering on, as contrasted to the very first scene he appears in in the opening. And I don't know, V learns to stop fighting and accept mortality, Johnny gets a second chance... I just like it.
I get the appeal of the Star ending. I do. Especially if you romance Judy (Judy romance plus Sun ending is extra miserable, though). But I guess Star is a little too close to "happily ever after" for my preference in this setting. It's a nice riding into the sunset, leaving Night City literally and metaphorically for V and the player, but such a happy ending (especially with the throwing the player a bone bit about a potential cure with some technomancer) feels oddly almost inappropriately happy for the setting. Actually I think in some ways the Devil ending might be the most appropriate, especially for some Vs. I mean I hate it and it's terrible, but it's also awesome and so, so cyberpunk. And it hits some nice notes with the themes, the misery, the desperation for life, the true nature of SoulKiller, destroying the Johnny engram only to become an engram yourself, the corps always win...
But maybe I'm just a sucker for depression. :::
::: spoiler Cyberpunk spoilers I agree with the first part but I don't really see bailing out as "happily ever after", personally. A "happily for a short time V has left", sure, but not as a fully happy ending. Is there a minuscule chance for V? Maybe. I just can't take it as anything more than wishful thinking considering even the best tech and doctors from Arasaka and NUSA have huge trouble doing anything about the construct.
I don't have a source on hand but I believe Mike Pondsmith said something akin to "Cyberpunk isn’t about saving humanity, it’s about saving yourself" and that's something I really like about the Star. A small ray of good in a terrible world, after everything we've been and seen throughout the game.
I feel like taking the genre as pure doom and gloom makes it less interesting to be honest. Humans have a wonderful ability to find happiness in and make the best of the worst situations one can think of, I don't see why that shouldn't be the case in Cyberpunk. It's one of the very few ways a normal person can "triumph" over corporations and whoever else runs the world in Cyberpunk - by finding a little bit of happiness in a world constructed to suck out your soul.
Sorry if my writing is a bit incoherent on this, I need to think about it a bit more before I can put things into words right.
I do enjoy all of the endings in their own way and, as you said, work well for different kinds of V. I also think they work well as different takes on the genre:
Or something like that. Again, I'm going to need a lot more time to sort out my thoughts about this whole thing. :::
That's a very thoughtful reply. I would expect nothing else from you.
::: spoiler spoiler I think the one thing about Star that irks me is that line about a potential cure. That is the one that makes me feel like they're just throwing a copium-bone to the players that desire it. If it was just about travelling away from the hellhole that is Night City and spending your last days with your newfound family in peace, then I would like it a lot more. :::
::: spoiler Cyberpunk I just can't take it as a serious possibility so it doesn't really bother me but I can definitely understand that. I wonder whether it was an attempt to make this ending feel more like an equal alternative to other options instead of giving up to die in peace, or if they tried to make it into a good/positive ending like you said. I'll have to look around if anyone on the team talked about it since launch, it would be interesting to get some insight on that. :::
I started Minishoot' Adventures two days ago and I cannot put it doen.
Great mix of twinstick / "Bullethell" Shooter and action adventure gamed like the old top doen Zelda games.
Not to easy, not too hard and the game respects totally your Time (no unnecessary fetch quests and it always helps you out where to go when you forgot it)
Can highly reccomend it and I think i gonna do a second run on hard mode after I am done :D
Finally picked up Palworld last week, so more of that.
Bought Ravenswatch for $2 and change yesterday. Link for anyone that wants it
It’s a top down rouge-lite RPG where you play as fairy tale characters. Game consists of 3 levels, with a limited time to scout the map for gold, upgrades, and to level up before you’re forced to fight the level boss.
Game supports multiplayer and crossplay.
Went in with no expectations, and me and a couple friends ended up having a lot of fun. Plan on playing more later this week.
The theme is pretty cool. Like Little Red Riding Hood, but she can change into a tank-y werewolf. Gepetto, but he builds Pinocchio automatons. Pied Piper and he uses swarms of exploding rats. Etc.
I'm on a legendary play of MCC (except H2) and Xenonaughts 1.
The vaultbreakers alpha test is very fun. Its exactly what ive been asking for for a decade: pve league of legends
My nephew spent the weekend here so I installed Kiborg from my backlog for some mindless fun. It's pretty decent. Good roguelike upgrade variety. Enemies are varied enough as well. Bosses are nothing to write home about. Story is barely there. All in all perfect for the occasion.
Replaying Cryptmaster. Might become an October tradition since the humor is just too much fun.
RimWorld released a beta of the upcoming 1.7 version that moves to their new Waylith engine, granting massive performance gains over the old Unity builds. I haven't done a real playthrough since before the Anomaly and Odyssey expansions released, so I'm thinking now's a good time to revisit the game. I've heard Anomaly was kind of disappointing, but here's hoping Odyssey is the less buggy vanilla version of Save Our Ships 2 I've heard it referred to as.
Though I'm not looking forward to rebuilding my mod list after all this time. Anyone have mod recommendations for someone who's been away from the scene for a few years?
Reinstalled Tropico 6 after a while.
It took me so long to figure out how to not lose money (a few years ago). Now I play for a good while, but eventually get bored and give it a break. But it is fun.
I'm irritated at the DLC. They seem a little pricey for what you get, which is a couple of buildings and a couple of other things, introducing new systems which is fine but..... like......... it's too much specific stuff and not enough general stuff.
So I ahve a couple of the DLC and that's all, and that's fine.
I also picked up Stray on sale and it's fun so far.
And I picked up Vintage Story, although I'm struggling to find food so far. meh. But it's pretty, so I'll keep working on it.