I liked the story of the first game more, but the second game is more fun to play
3 Likes
What I love of the gameplay (specially suring Classic mode) is that even if you can be frail like a tootpick, your enemies can aswell if you can tackle them with care.
Like, figuring out how to kill the Hysterias (the Lost in a dress and that run towards you with a kitchen knife) instead just avoiding them feels so good. Also taking down the Harbingers with stealth kills is so badass.
1 Like
Depp rock galactic may not have won the steam labour of love award but we did get a cool Viking hat and I think that is much better
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Completed Mass Effect 2 on Insanity.
Romanced Garrus (obv).
Time to play ME3.
The first third of the game is hard on insanity, but once you get to higher level, and have enough upgrades for both Shepard and her squad to be able to one-shot strip the shield/armour/barrier of most enemies, to then be able to crowd control them it becomes much more manageable.
For those who never played mass effect 2 : on higher difficulty the large majority of enemies gain a second life bar, a protection one in addition to health. Some even have a third one.
There are different type, each is efficiently removed with the appropriate kind of attack/ammo/abilities/powers. On Insanity you have to be efficient in removing them, and whose to remove first.
Because if any is present, they no-sell any crowd control action you can use.
Which you need to, as on insanity enemies love spamming their own abilities if not crowd controlled, and also punch way harder.
It’s enjoyable, it makes the gameplay deliberate. I think it’s my favourite integration of a difficulty setting in a game.
Also, a quick summary of the trilogy:
6 Likes
Started playing Judgement, the detective/private investigator spinoff of the Yakuza series.
Not many impressions to note so far, as I’ve only finished the first hour and two or so intro missions.
The mini city has now started to open up though, and I like how detailed and immersive it is at being very maze-like, but kinda cozy.
Also, there’s a decent focus on physical combat with enemies.
At some points you can trigger an ‘EX’ move, a flashy move that does a good chunk of damage to an enemy.
It is usually triggered by holding an object, or an enemy, or being near some specific object. I took a look at the tutorial/glossary of EX moves in the game, and well… this is probably the wildest, most morally bleak move to pull on an enemy!
5 Likes
暖めよろしく!
Aka Heat Actions. They introduced this one in Yakuza 6. Really like the playful English translation they use (I assume JE has the same one).
3 Likes
Ohh, so this reuses moves from Y6?
I haven’t played any of the Yakuza games, but I do know they have some similar “Heat” feature or something, where you can trigger special moves and takedowns. (One I remember seeing a clip of, is being in a crowded intersection, throwing a man into a car’s window as it pulls up, and it ends up being some other Yakuza gang car… and they’re driven out of the fight lol)
2 Likes
Yeah, reusing moves (or entire movesets really) is kinda a thing with the series. Which makes sense since you spend most of the time playing as the same character. I haven’t played Judgment yet (it’s on my list for this year), but I assume it takes quite a few from the previous games as well, especially the special ones. This one was introduced in Y6, that being the first game on the Dragon Engine, and it’s also in Kiwami 2.
I saw a clip of this one as well, but it was from Judgment and I haven’t really checked if it’s possible to pull off in Y6 or YK2. I’ll have to do that later today 
You absolutely should! I’ve gone through seven of them so far and they’re all absolute bangers.
2 Likes
A Chicken Assassin “Chicharron” who kills humans.
I like the Amigos (Animal Companion in Combat) and this chicken is crazy.
The story is slightly above average , as of now(as compared to FC 3 and 4).
The gun handling at the start was not that good, but once you get the good gun later, it makes sense. I enjoy the spanish rap songs in the car radio and lets see how the game ends.
Fun Fact or Myth:
Spoiler Alert for Open World Games
As per my observation in most open world games in the past, if a popular npc doesn’t give you side quest (but main or no quest), that means he/she will betray you or die at the end.
7 Likes
Ah yes I remember when I grinded out the tutorial island an drove cross-country across the entire map just to get the Chicharron mission finished when they had a Free Trial back in the day…
Missions were okay, didn’t quite like how it involved a lot of dog-murder tho (you had to kill a bunch of the army’s dogs because the Chicken had a rivalry with them.)
Oh yeah and the game had a really fun CGI trailer involving it woohoo
6 Likes
So, uh, I’ve finally started playing TLOU Part 1 remake, and while the game is definitely a shot-for-shot, mechanic-for-mechanic rebuild of the original game that people keep mentioning about it (for better or worse) there… seems to be at least some tiny bit of addition to the game?
First of all, I know they didn’t record anything new, but I guess they revived some cut/missing line from Ellie here!
I’ve never heard this “They still have their faces” line! It was always [Kill Runners in Building] → [Tess says “They must’ve just turned”]
Some scenes near the start transition in and out of in-game cutscenes by following the camera through with Joel, instead of a cut to a different angle (dropping into the shipping area for one thing) and some gameplay-to-cutscene transitions (that used to be pre-rendered scenes) no longer have the black cutaway to separate them.
This can either be good or bad, IMO.
The “can’t deny that view” scene ends at sunset with the Capitol building off in the distance, with the gang climbing down a ladder – then it cuts to later on with the building just a few blocks away, the gang had just climbed down another ladder and it’s midday. --But in the remake, there’s no cut to black, so the transition between the two scenes back-to-back feels jarring and chronologically dissonant.
The animations, for better or worse, have also been changed to match Part 2’s detail. Joel feels way more weighty and sluggish. Vaulting feels like it takes just a liiitle bit more time than usual, as he doesn’t quite “snap into” a vault like the original game. It feels off, though that’s because I’ve played the original version for years on end.
In terms of net “Improvements” I’ve found that the lighting and environment is a lot better and makes certain locations way better to navigate.
The Capitol building was notorious for me, for having some pitch-black rooms off to the side for some reason, making enemies who patrol within it virtually impossible to spot before they run into you. But in the remake, they’ve improved lighting coming in from outside the room, making things visible and clearer to see.
They’ve also “improved” the Clickers so that they match their behaviour from Part 2.
They honestly feel way more terrifying and deadly than they have before.
Believe it or not, their AI was essentially “broken” this whole time in the original game. It was claimed that they were blind and could “see like bats” with echolocation, but that latter part was false. The only way you could get spotted by them was making heavy noise or getting too close to them.
In Part 2, they refined them so they actually used echolocation, and “clicked” in certain directions to let you know where they’re looking, and could even spot you even if you’re standing still in front of them.
And this is also now how they work in the Part 1 Remake. The subway section where you face a gauntlet felt wayy worse than usual because of this.
7 Likes
Finished Alan Wake II Final Draft (Name game plus) to see what set it apart from the normal playthrough.
It’s starts with a new narration of the opening scene, that ties into the ending. New pages can be found through out the game, that adds to the story written by Wake. Dr. Casper Darling from Control, has a more “prominent” role or rather he’s not just a quick distorted flash on a TV. The ending ties itself to the previous ending and wraps a nice bow on the looping spiral of madness that is this story.
There are still some annoying bugs, I still can’t complete the “story” and other casefiles. It keeps some evidence marked “for later”. That later never comes, not even when the game is done. So there are some story elements that I can’t uncover, even if I’m able to logically deduce where they are leading.
All in all a awesome experience, I look forward to the DLCs.
I won’t give it a 10/10 this time around, but rather a 9/10. The Evidence collecting gets a bit old, the second time around. The most interesting part of the game is from Alan’s view point.
8 Likes
Played through the entirety of The Binding of Isaac: Repentance for the third time. Yeah, I might have no life but it’s just my favorite game of all time, even surpassing Hitman. Got the funny fat Isaac in the main menu too, hooray.
Also been playing Lethal Company with my friends, nice to see such a quality indie game doing so well.
4 Likes
Was looking for something quick and easy to boot up and play tonight and tried out the GBA Collection from my NSO Expansion subscription, that I really haven’t used all that much in the last month…
Something small and short… So I tried “Warioware Inc. Mega Microgames” for the GBA!
And I’m really liking it!
I’ve never played a Warioware game before but I kinda understood the gist of it from it cameo’ing in other Nintendo titles? Rapid-fire minigames you have to complete in a random order.
Well, yeah! But also, rapid-fire in that you have to quickly deduce what you need to do to succeed. Sometimes it’s move Left/Right to avoid/catch something. Sometimes it’s pressing A at the right time to succeed. Sometimes it combines both controls and you have to figure out how to do it – all in just 4 seconds!
It’s very fun and realllllly gets the heart racing. There seems to be a campaign with themed bunches of levels and you have to clear a certain high score to move onto the next. You also get 3 lives to survive if you fail a minigame.
And once you clear someone’s bunch, you can replay that one in an endless mode.
It reminds me a lot of Rhythm Heaven but instead of Rhythm based games, its quick games of skill and tight timing.
Once you get to a new roster of games to make it through, it can be surprising and scary. After you fail once and try that set again, it becomes less scary and confusing, since you know what some of the games require of you. But the order is always random (except for the longer Boss Stage at the end) and the game gets faster every 4-ish levels.
4 Likes
I’ve had the itch to play the Batman Arkham Series recently.
First a foremost I’m doing things chronologically and by chronologically I do mean I’m including Arkham Origins and its Black Gate spinoff since 1. I never played them and 2. Outside of some inconsistencies Arkham Knight still acknowledges aspects of Origins despite its place with canon being “inconsistent”
One of my biggest issue quite literally is just getting the damn games runnings on Steam Deck. The only real big hurdle I’ve been having issues with is Arkham Asylum. I’m just trying to get the game running with better graphical settings. Unfortunately I’m having shader compilation errors on the process resulting in the game crashing before it could load any logos. I’m assuming it’s a Direct X thing so I’m gonna have to get the appropriate files to make the game run, but I’m looking into the issue and am not giving up on Asylum just yet.
Other than that Origins, City, and Knight have their Community Patches installed and run almost flawlessly. Just again Asylum is giving me the most issues since its PC port is dated and hasn’t been updated in a very long time.
Edit: After hours of trial and error I solved the shader compilation error by finding a Proton Version that solves the crashing. Asylum is working as intended and now I begin the task of installing Asylum Reborn textures by figuring out how to run .Bat files on Steam Deck
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Okay, so I’ve now also started Assassin’s Creed Origins recently. Yeah, I’m crazy and have too big of a backlog and itch to find something new that can suck me in right now, idk.
Judgement is okay so far, but I’m finding there to be too many cutscenes in the main story that break up the gameplay often.
Crazy On Me
Anyway, yeah, I’m a little crazy lol
- Got Dying Light 1 with Silvereyes I’m enjoying.
- I’ve stopped playing Dying Light 2 for now, since whenever I switch between DL1 and 2, I always get mixed up with the controls (they differ slightly between both games, plus I have different skills unlocked for each)
- I’ve got Alan Wake 2 Final Draft to do, but honestly given that it starts with Saga’s linear exposition-filled chapters first, where everything is basically the same, makes it a bit of a drag. It was cool the first time to get re-immersed into the world, but I’ve played all that already. I know what I’m getting into again.
- Judgement, as mentioned, is fun and I like its style, but so far I’ve only just barely started getting side-quests and the main story gets broken up with long talking cutscenes a lot…
- I’ve still got Last of Us Part 1 Remake to get through… but I know the ins and outs of that one pretty well already.
- Plus, there’s Super Mario Wonder of course I have to keep going with, as well as perhaps a few smaller titles on my Switch for some time-wasting bits of fun.
So yeah. Just… looking for something very engaging that I can play for a while and haven’t played yet. AC has been on my list for a while now, might as well use this PS+ Extra sub while I still can…
Plus Mirage has interested me with its “back to basics classic AC gameplay” but it hasn’t dropped low enough for me to consider it yet.
It’s enjoyable. I think it’s an okay starting point since it’s essentially a new soft reboot I think, what with the switch to an RPG system.
Plus, the parkour is pretty basic, so any other game I choose that isn’t the RPGs, will mean it’ll feel better I guess lol. But the setting and theming are pretty cool for now
The story is alright to good so far.
The first main target you kill triggers a flashback to show you protagonist Bayek’s motivation for his Hit List. It’s pretty damn heartbreaking and well-acted honestly. Dude gets forced to kill his son by accident, so then goes on a vengeance-fueled quest to find and kill the perpetrators. Damn.
5 Likes
I tried out a bit of TLOU2 No Return this morning!
It’s probably gonna be pretty great and addictive.
Challenges to complete to unlock more characters and modes, randomized encounters you wouldn’t see in the main game…
It’s also quite tough (probably because I tried it on Hard because I like the lethality of it – but I guess that’s only when I have checkpoints to fall back on lol) 
Played 3 runs of it. The first two, I died on the first encounter. The third one, I finished 2 encounters, but died on the third.
Mostly I only got Seraphite ones lol, and man they are stealthy! Some just find their way behind me, its spooky!
I’ve probably gotta get a better hang of this mode on Normal mode at most for now. Because death comes swift and then it’s over. Plus it’s been a long while since I’ve played any of the Part 2 encounters so the maps are still confusing for now lol
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I don’t mind being spoiled on this, what characters/character models can you play as?
1 Like
You start off with Ellie and Abby as playable.
And then each character has a “Play 3 Runs as [previous unlocked character]” I think to unlock the next one.
So for each “alliance” it goes:
- Ellie
- Dina
- Jesse
- Tommy
- Joel
- Abby
- Lev
- Yara
- Mel
- Manny
It’s worth noting that they only chose characters who act as combat companions in Part 2 probably because they already have lots of animations and voice-lines made, which is why Owen is noticeably absent unfortunately (for some people)
In a weird turn of events, some fans have found that Abby sometimes gets called “Anna” by enemies.
This is either some weird cut content from Part 2 and they used the wrong voice lines in No Return, some content for Part 3 that accidentally got put in, or something else. Weird tho.
Also, Tommy and Joel straight-up use either Ellie or Abby’s animations which make them look very strange apparently.
Zero clue why they couldn’t use their animations from the Part 1 Remake since it’s just right there!
2 Likes
Adding to this: No Return feels kinda Freelancer-like.
The roguelike is level/encounter-based so you’ll be getting into it in chunks. There is a main hub that you start and return to after every encounter.
Each return to the base has you opening a chest with your perk point/parts/coins and sometimes a new skill tree upgrade depending on what the reward is for that specfic level.
Each level has random crafting resources spread around the level.
I’m not so sure yet, but I feel like I heard that some level props/cover areas get shifted around too sometimes, but that was before launch, idk.
You get currency to spend on a weapon locker to expand your current arsenal. Buying long guns, free crafted items, or recipes to specific items.
All of this is reset every time you end a run by succeeding or failing.
Each character comes with a unique “Starter Set” of weapons/crafting recipes/skill trees. (Some of it is exclusive to No Return, like a “Double-Crafting” tree?) Looks like you can get lucky and purchase someone else’s “exclusive” recipes or items from the locker.
At one point you can unlock “Gambits” which are bonus challenges to get more rewards.
Kill X Enemies with Y, stuff like that.
So… Kinda Freelancer-ish?
Excited to see how I can improve at this, looks like they start you off with basic game modes/encounters and little side-objectives, but it gradually expands and gets crazier the more of it you play.
But there’s also a Custom Run mode where you can pick and choose, craft your own setup of encounters through the mode.
3 Likes