Some online friends asked if I wanted to try it out 2 or 3 days ago. We had lots of fun. Only major problem we had was that my game kept crashing like every 2nd or 3rd game we played. Apparently this was due to a known bug that whoever is hosting the game might just randomly crash. I guess people complain about the community being toxic in public lobbies (the game has in game voice chats btw). But if you have a group of people to play the game with and host private lobbies you can stay away from those people (I’ve only played private lobbies). Hopefully from crashing for those hosting is a known issue they are currently working on a patch. That’s really my only complaint I can make from my experience.
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I think it was fixed, now it just switches host to a random player in the party. There are toxic lobbies but if you scroll through the joinable lobbies, just pick something like “chill mic only” and you will likely be fine
Silvereyes and I have been playing the latest main entry in the We Were Here series, a co-op puzzle solving game.
Last night we encountered this otherworldly 3D puzzle involving seperate rooms, needing to navigate portals between them and rotate them to both escape.
Then it “simplified it” in just a cube, but made it 4D as you had two seperate but linked realities to walk between and navigate.
I thought this was a really really cool puzzle. I think it would be amazing in VR.
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Broken Sword Shadow of the Templars reforged.
Awesome revisit to a classic. Games don’t get more charming than this.
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Its sooo good, i cant wait for the newest game
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When it comes to taste in games I think we are as close as it gets to identical twins 
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Na naaa, na na na na na na, na, na KATAMARI DAMACYYYYY
I finally got to play a Katamari Damacy game after listening to the soundtack religiously for these past years.
I absolutely LOVE Katamari Damacy REROLL. The setting is amazing, the gameplay is amazing, the music is chef’s kiss. Very, very fun and funny.
The original (REROLL is a remake with small differences) is in the Wikipedia list for “Games Considered the Best” and is displayed at the MoMA!!
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Just Cause 3. Want to Get platinum trophy. I know it’s a ten year old game, but it’s still one of my favourites.
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Right, I took a break from Yakuza, and I returned to 7 a few weeks ago. I finished 7 and have just today finished Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. I own Infinite Wealth and am a few hours into it. I hope to finish it by the end of the month and get the new Pirate game at launch. Then, at some point, move onto the Judgment games.
So, story wise: I really enjoyed 7, i really like Ichiban, and the game feels like a lovely change of pace from the Kiryu saga. I think the first 2-3 chapters are just borderline perfect, Ichiban’s “origin story” is extremely well done. A great cast of characters, the city of Yokohama is really fleshed out. I do think the story suffers from some flabbiness in the middle, especially the late middle where I feel like things could of been tightened up, but it does lead into a great finale.
The Man Who Erased His Name on the other hand, I have mixed feelings on. I think the first 2 chapters are pretty frustrating, and then the second half is when things improve considerably. The Daidoji are just so idiotic. Might as well just be another Yakuza faction. I thought they’d be a bit smarter about things, and have far more knowledge about how dangerous Kiryu is, but no. I also don’t like how the Watase Family try to recruit Kiryu and keep their plan secret, it’s all a bit silly and creates a conflict that honestly shouldn’t be that difficult to resolve. Things pick up a lot once the plot to get rid of Nishitani comes up, including the great sequence of Kiryu and co running around Sotenbori living it up just to piss him off.
I’m not too sure how to feel about Gaiden. It is neat how it does tie into an element of 7’s story, but it also means that you lose a lot if you haven’t already played 7. The game is short, only 5 chapters, probably less than half the length of any other Yakuza mainline title. It almost feels like a typical Yakuza plot, but heavily abridged. I like parts of it, that ending is just, well a total fucking gutpunch, Kiryu just breaking down and weeping, I felt that. But I don’t think I could rank it above any mainline game, even 3 and 6 which had a lot more problems, but also had their own bright moments and think they added to the overall story of Yakuza.
Not a fan of 4 and 5? I really enjoyed both, even if it does mean there attempts at weaving together a bigger narrative mean they aren’t without problems. As for me, 3 and 6 are the ones which I think have big flaws for me, even if there are still elements I enjoy. 1 and 2 are good tales, before Yakuza’s storytelling would start to evolve. I like them but I think I enjoy the grander tales of later entries. If I was being objective, 0 I think is the best story they ever did, but 5, despite it having issues, I think it hits me in so many good spots. And it is the only game to have Shinada, which is a massive plus. So I think my new order would be:
5>0>7>4>1>2>6>3>G
Looking forward to seeing where Infinite Wealth and Pirate rank next.
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Man, my end-of-the-year Steam review made me realise that I didn´t play any Yakuza at all (aside from a handful of sessions) since finishing 6 in late 2023. Not that I wouldn´t want to, but the Dragon Engine games don´t run super well on my regular laptop, so until I get the better one running properly, I´m probably not moving forward 
Gotta stick with finishing the side content in 3, 4, 5, and 6 I guess.
Makes you wonder if they should´ve left it as a DLC for 7 as originally intended… I guess it makes sense that it´s a bit of a hit or miss story-wise. Though people seem to universally praise it for the combat (and hate the lack of NG+).
Not that I´m not a fan. I like them as much as all the other games in the series (though I have numerous gameplay beefs to pick with 5), but I find them to have the weakest stories. The one in 4 starts off well-enough, it´s nicely grounded, centred around a classic “conflict between two families” scenario, it helps that the whole game focuses on an expanded Kamurocho setting, and I enjoyed the different perspectives of the three new characters, but when it all gets to Kiryu´s part, it just falls apart. I can´t help but feel like they wanted to keep Kiryu as a side character in this one with just a cameo, but then made a last-minute decision against it and somehow weren´t able to wrap it up in a satisfying manner. All the plot-related rubbish, whether it´s the infamous rubber-bullets twist(s) or that utterly idiotic “we think The Departed was such a cool movie, we wanna pay (another) tribute to it here” rooftop scene happen during his part. I love that game overall. The individual character perspectives are great, the combat is fun and satisfying, the leveling-up system is easily the best in the Kiryu saga, multi-layered Kamurocho is great, the substories are all fun and expand on their respective characters, and the whole game just has this chill, easy-going, funky vibe embracing the entertainment-district setting. But when it comes to the story, that last chapter makes it fall flat on its ass. Hard.
In five, again, I liked the way it started off in Fukuoka. Mysterious and centred around the Tojo-Omi conflict. But then comes Saejima´s chapter where you´re force-slogged into two artificially prolonged prison chapters, one mountain chapter (which leads to a fun minigame/side story, but has no impact on the plot), and one city chapter which contributes little beyond revealing the apparent death of a certain character. Then comes the Osaka chapter, which is arguably more relevant and interesting (plus brings a gameplay change in Haruka´s sections, though this time around Akiyama is the shoehorned-in character), but leaves more questions than answers. And then comes the Shinada chapter, which is just completely superfluous plot-wise (more on that later). I was intrigued by how all of that will wrap together in the finale, but by the time the main baddy´s plot is finally revealed, it all just turns out to have been unnecessarily convoluted and… really kinda dumb? Like one of those Bond-movie moments where the main villain comes up with a Ruth Goldberg-type doohickey to kill the hero in a super-elaborate way instead of just putting a bullet through their head (and I say that as someone who loves Bond movies). I´m sure I´ll have a better time with 5 when I decide to replay it, cause I will already know the story and will be able to just embrace the slow pace of the whole thing (despite the gameplay-issues), but on the first playthrough, the expected pay-off just wasn´t there.
Speaking of which…
I just don´t get the appeal that people see in Shinada… Maybe it´s because by the time I got to his part, I was already feeling burnt out from the previous three, but even if I look past that, I just feel like his entire story contributed little to nothing to the overall plot. I really liked the whole baseball angle, as it´s very unique, but I just feel it would´ve made a more interesting spin-off on its own rather than a part of Y5´s narrative. Shinada himself was more annoying to me than charming, mainly due to being lazy as fuck and not willing to do anything with his life. Couple that with RGG´s baffling decision to make him a nightlife journalist living in Nagoya´s entertainment district, and somehow avoiding making any use of that (unlike Y4, Y0, or other entries). At least he has one of the best side characters in the series in the form of Takasugi.
2 Likes
Honestly my PC isn’t great for Dragon Engine either, I would often have framerate drops in 6 especially. I wound up deciding to buy a PS5 copy of Infinite Wealth, which I’m glad I did. It runs at a solid 60fps and looks a lot better than 7 does which was stuck at 30fps and medium to low settings on my PC.
I think the combat is interesting, even if I never really used the agent style and just relied on dragon style all the time. Sucks there is no New Game+ but honestly I’m not sure how much NG+ would add to a rather small game anyway.
I kinda get that. Perhaps in a way it is good Shinada is a one and done kind of character. I always took Shinada’s laziness and aloofness as somebody who has no investment in his life anymore, someone just coasting after losing his dream. Only for Mr X to come along and force him to confront the trauma of his past.
Yeah, Shinada’s part of the grand narrative isn’t very integral, but honestly, I think that whole section alone is just a great story in of itself.
1 Like
I believe the argument there is since it is such a short game, it makes more sense to have NG+ since you can buzz through it much quicker than the other titles and enjoy the unlocks with it.
That’s perfectly understandable and on point, and I would be fine with it if the guy wasn’t such a damn leech 
I totally agree, and like I said, I think it would make a fine standalone spin-off. But in the grand scheme of 5, it just feels like balast (underscored by the absolute lack of necessity of his final boss fight).
1 Like
I got myself Red Dead Redemption as a Christmas present now that Rockstar/2K have so graciously decided to port the game after 14 fecking years. Having a lot of fun with it (especially the gunplay) and taking it slowly for immersion. 30 hours in and I’ve just moved to the Mexico chapter.
It also made me want to play some more open world stuff, so I decided to finally give Mafia III a go, though for now I’m mainly dealing with eliminating dumb you-can’t-toggle-this-shit-off-in-the-settings developer decisions such as a shitty colour filter and a shaky driving camera (the latter of which I also had to deal with in Mafia DE).
Also got the Rizia DLC for Suzerain, so I’ll likely dive into that later this month. Looking forward to some geopolitical shenanigans and getting screwed over by foreign leaders and my own court/cabinet.
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Today I learned that my Steam Deck can double as a Playstation Portal.
Surprisingly great remote player for local play.
I’ve been doing a lot of research and reading on how best get Epic, GOG, and other storefronts working on the Deck, preferably in native Gaming Mode with as few Linux hitches as possible.
There are a lot of plugins and programs to find, and a bit of tinkering/installing in Desktop Mode to get things to work, but I think I’ve got a great setup now for most of my Steam Library, plus some others.
Still confused about some of the “other Proton versions” I might have to install/run to get some games working better than normal.
But I guess it makes sense it’s a little overwhelming since it’s Linux and that’s a nerdy platform for nerdy tinkerers with OS’s… and it’s very moddable, and I have very little clue what specifically each module adds/modifies when I install it, other than it works and is well-reviewed. 
Cool though! I’ve been enjoying getting into Hades 2 Early Access. Runs great!
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I am playing an android Mobile game -
Dark War Survival
It is an optional multiplayer game based on surviving the zombies and upgrading and conquering areas.
There are several characters and recently they released a character Cyrus - which is somewhat similar to Agent 47
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As a Deck owner myself be very careful with it.
While it’s an expensive piece of tech, the display is very fragile and can shatter internally or externally if you accidentally drop something on it.
Fortunately and unfortunately Deck is designed to be repaired relatively “easily” if you have the know how since you can easily buy a replacement display.
If you don’t have a know how you can also get it serviced, but they do Factory Reset the device.
I recommend if you do any type of modding of sorts particularly for games such as Fallout New Vegas. Do so on something where you can easily back it up like an Micro SD Card
Invest in a good SD Card and Screen Protector, and it’s okay to smell the vent every so often. We all do it.
5 Likes
Finished Star Wars Outlaws after 51 hours of play time. As I mentioned in my initial post, even though the game started out a bit slow, it soon after kicked into gear.
Outlaws is criminally underrated and I can’t understand all the hate the negativity surrounding the game. I’m aware that the game started out as a buggy mess, however that is more often then not the rule. There have been a lot of negativity surrounding Kay and her looks, apparently if you don’t look like a porn star you are ugly and therefor the game is a woke mess. Not I give validity to criticism from angry basement dwelling man children.
If I have to raise my own faults with an extremely well crafted game experience. Is that the Crime faction reputation system isn’t as developed as I hope, it ends up being very surface level and very easy to play all side with little to no conflict.
My last grievance is that the planet I looked the most forward to wasn’t much more then a city hub. Kijimi sadly very small, there isn’t really a lot to explore or do, other then main missions.
Ending on a good note, all the characters where great and well written. There are some twists that you see coming miles away and yet with a small twist breaths some new life into classic trops. A shoutout to ND-5, a great addition to the many cool droids of Star Wars and damn does a BX series commando droid look cool in a trench coat.
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Started playing Marvel Rivals today (just in time to access some of the Season 0 content).
I didn’t expect to, but I’ve been loving it. I can see myself playing a whole lot of it.
The gameplay is really fun and fast-paced. Matches are short and to the point, meaning you can drop in for 10 minutes or so, or play for hours (which I did) as I find the quick change of map/mode/teams keeps the engagement up.
The art style and character design is great imo. Nice graphics, with a comic-book-y look and every character feels unique and, more importantly, usable (of the ones I tried but I’ve been mainly playing Thor).
I’m not a huge fan of the live service battle pass fomo stuff in general, but it’s a free-to-play title so it’s really not as bad here and you can totally enjoy the game without it. Though I did end up purchasing the S0 battle pass. It costs ~£8 at 1050 of their gold currency; though of course the closest amount you can actually purchase is only 1000, to encourage you to buy the more expensive bulk lot of currency… which is… fine, I guess, as I’ll most likely buy the next battle pass.
My only mistake was checking the game’s Nexus Mods page… 
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You either get random stuff like WhatsApp captain america or unspeakable demons there is basically no in between
Also if you buy a battle pass in this game you can keep it even after it ends so not much fomo besides a few beta test skins twitch drops and ranked stuff
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It looks like Captain “Stevil” Hydra.
Also I always thought a lot of the Marvel Rivals designs are kinda overwrought, I am not fond of ninety percent of them.
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