the music is so good.
2 Likes
Played and enjoyed Homebody, a weird little indie game from last year. It’s one of those games where part of the pleasure is discovering what it is and how it works, so I won’t say too much other than it’s kind of a psychological horror game with an emphasis on old-school CD-ROM point-and-click style puzzles–with 90s graphics to match.
Emily meets an old group of friends that she hasn’t seen in a while at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Weird, creepy things start happening. The thing is, Emily suffers from social anxiety and OCD and depression, subjects that the game handles quite well–in ways both literal and metaphorical. (As someone familiar with some of those issues, it struck particularly close to home when I would pick a dialogue option for Emily only to have her say something completely different–and always much more innocuous. My brain does that shit all the time.)
Not everything lands perfectly, but it comes from a heartfelt place with a perspective you don’t see a lot in video games.
And I started Pentiment. I’m only a (game) day in, but I’m already loving it. Normally when I play these types of narrative games (or any game really), I tend toward the “good”/helpful options, but I find that playing a 16th century artist in a Bavarian Abbey has caused my inner atheist to start annoying the clergy, especially the pious ones in charge. You’re goddamn right I want to debate the finer points of Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses at the dinner table. 
(I’m totally going to get burned at the stake. 
)
7 Likes
I’ve been (mostly) enjoying getting back into playing Dead By Daylight since they added Alan Wake, and recently finished up the Revision Season Pass (Battle Pass) the other night.
Yeah, that’s not really something to write home about but I just have something to say about it.
The other day, I did a bad thing 
. Neglected my sleep, stayed awake till 2am grinding out challenges just to finish off the last 5 or so levels in the pass. It was mostly fine since I had a day off after that, so I didnt need to wake up early, but still, not a good habit to make.
This is why I quit Fortnite, and continue to loathe its FOMO-heavy pass system. Makes me sad there’s unique cosmetics I’ll fully miss out on until the heat-death of the universe, but also puts you in a choke-hold to play when you don’t want to and has a horribly slow levelling system that always got worse with each season.
I only play it for the Music mode now. Good job, Harmonix.
Anyway, yeah, I’m not proud of finishing the pass so late at night, getting unlucky, and continuing to play until I finished up the last 1 or 2 challenges I needed to get enough points for the last tiers.
I kinda did this to myself, since I took many weeks off of playing DBD in february and then ravenously remembered and chose to try and grind out the weeks I missed in like a 1.5 week period…
(And apparently, DBD puts its Pass cosmetics in the Shop like 6 months after they come out. So it’s not like I’d miss out forever… but I’d still get a fantastic deal for value here, IMO.)
But yeah. Good reminder that I won’t do this again, especially if I’m just not enjoying myself when it comes to pushing myself to play it.
On the bright side though, since I got to the end it means I made my money back in Premium Currency and was able to re-invest that into a Classic Alan Wake skin that looks pretty great 
Also one of my favourite killers The Hillbilly has a Batman-themed costume at the very end of the pass that I think is pretty neat.
Anyway! Don’t do FOMO kids!
I’ve at least reconciled this with HITMAN’s ETs (though largely because they’ve become repetitive and I don’t find much enjoyment from them anymore)
5 Likes
I bought it during the spring sale a few weeks back, but have only played for a few minutes (got my attention diverted by another game). I´ll try jumping into it asap before it joins my long list of “installed but haven´t touched since” games 
Coincidentally, Noclip released a documentary on it a few days ago! (gonna watch after I actually play through it)
7 Likes
Alright, cool, jumping back into AC2 after like over a month of being locked out of it.
(Probably gonna have to re-read a synopsis to get to grips with the story, since I left off at a climactic mission where you’ll finally kill your father’s killer and Templar leader…)
And man, it’s a cool mission and story events, but also pretty bad and terribly paced?
You gotta go kill Rodrigo Borgia by disguising as a guard and delivering him his package with the supernatural Piece of Eden.
So, you do that, but in a cutscene Ezio then kills all the guards around him when he approaches and reveals himself, making you start a forced combat sequence.
All thr friends you’ve made over the course of the game end up appearing to help fight the groups of guards which I found pretty cool and a culmination of all Ezio’s journey so far.
But, after lowering Borgia’s health 3 times, he knocks down Ezio and runs away in a cutscene.
Great! I think!. Time for a chase mission to kill him!
Nope! Ezio’s friends say “ehh he’s gone, don’t bother. Good news: you’re The Prophet!”
(I don’t know who the Prophet is, not sure if I’m supposed to? But I’m guessing its some important figure that can wield the Eden pieces.)
Anyway, just… UGH. Terrible anti-climax and we just let the main bad guy get away?? Why??
Well, good news, because up next you’re told by the Modern Day people that you’ve got to skip some 9 or 10 years into the future when the Main Bad Guy becomes Pope of Italy, and you’re going to the Vatican!
But actually nope again!
Turns out Ubisoft cut out two mission sequences before this to finish and sell as DLC after releasing the game, so you have to disregard all that and return to doing other busywork before you can see the Big Bad again. Ugh.
I’ve read that players really aren’t fond of these DLC sections at all so that’s very reassuring 
3 Likes
I mean if it makes you feel any better you and everybody you cared about suffer severe consequences because of it in the next game.
2 Likes
Pentiment is fun and it is very short, it doesn’t take more than a half a day or so playing to finish it once.
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Lol. Damn. Them’s the consequences of your actions, gang. Ah well.
Actually, playing through the Forli Missions right now, it’s not all that bad. It’s very combat focused with you Notorious at all times and forced into combat a lot because of the amount of guards in town, but the missions are fairly short and trigger one-after-the-other.
Not that I have much incentive to do anything aside the main missions now, since I’ve cleared out nearly all the other side-content.
1 Like
I mean you can’t break into The Vatican, beat up the Pope, attempt to steal the papal fibrula and then try to kill the pope without suffering some consequences
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Honestly I don’t think they’re bad at all. People are probably just not fond of them because of how they suddenly affect the pacing after the whole “You’re going to the Vatican, Desmond!” thing (which frankly - despite how dramatically efficient it is - shouldn’t be there, because Shaun has absolutely no way of knowing it, because you have to solve a certain puzzle to find out that is where you indeed have to go).
As for the DLCs themselves, the Siege of Forli is neat because more Machiavelli and Catarina Sforza (plus it has a scene pertaining to the aforementioned puzzle), and the Bonfire of the Vanities unlocks the last part of Florence and shows the city under very different circumstances (also, more Machiavelli and cool cutscene/speech for Ezio).
1 Like
Oh. Right. Well.
I’ll get to that when I get to that. 
Ah neat! I assume that’s the bridge down south?
I was wondering when that area would unlock!!
And cool. 
I enjoy hearing Roger Craig Smith in his silly little italian accent 
2 Likes
You should, Brotherhood is even better than 2 and you also get to breaking into The Vatican in that game as well! No beating up the Pope though…
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That is good to know. I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time on a reading game and it also makes it much more friendly towards repeated alternative playthroughs.
3 Likes
I’m itching to finish up AC2 and jump straight into Brotherhood for more assassining and other QOL features for controls and weapon selecting.
I’ve heard its the fan-favourite of the AC2 trilogy, with Revelations being okay, but not that good of a story and clearly a stop-gap to fill in a release void before 3 came out. So, damn it ubisoft.
2 Likes
I actually loved Revelations more than 2 after replaying it but it does have some significant story problems especially with how the Ottoman Empire is depicted.
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Indeed.
The best thing is when they had him do a cameo in Black Flag for that.
You absolutely should. In fact, the itching will be even stronger when you finish AC2, because the ending is rather open and Brotherhood is essentially one massive epilogue for it (with better/enhanced gameplay and arguably the best modern-day segment).
Revelations is underappreciated. The story may feel “weird” since you’re suddenly not dealing with stuff related to Ezio et al. (plus the modern-day segments are garbage but thankfully largely voluntary), but it gives him a nice epilogue and has this calm/meditative vibe to it. And Altair’s segments are a nice touch.
3 Likes
Okay, lol, last little update about this strange sequence shift in AC2. 
Ezio encountered the Stab Wound That Grows You A Beard!
Doctors Hate Him! Learn how Ezio grew a beard in just a few short hours!
(This game isn’t the best at telling you exactly how much time passes between events. It pops up a year when a new sequence starts, but you might have forgotten when the last one was after so many missions/side-missions.)
4 Likes
Since it was dirt cheap I bought and then finished Firewatch, it was a simple story told well even if it was a bit on the short side. I also bought Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun since I also had my eye on it for a while and it was also dirt cheap. It is fun and obviously it is much longer than Firewatch.
5 Likes
Please go into the extras menu and play the Audio Tour mode if you’re at all interested in hearing how the game was made and written.
It’s one of the coolest commentary modes in gaming I’ve seen, as you replay the story, find cassette tapes around the area, where devs fill you in on what went into crafting a certain environment or scene, actors behind a role, plus there are extra concept art boards or static character models to look at freely.
6 Likes
I will do that once I get the time to, I always do like developer commentary.
1 Like