When you cater to everyone…
3 Likes
Pretty easy to create a utopia when you have ruled from 1950 through to INFINITY
Game ends in 1958 - just managed to pull through without a coup/revolution/abdication/death. (Infinity would be nice though… *happy monarch noises)
So I believe the game is called Suzerain? Because I feel like I have come across it before.
Yup. This in particular is the Kingdom of Rizia DLC.
2 Likes
Winning so much. You might even get tired of winning.
1 Like
Nah, I´ll savour it. Will probably cry when I try my first war run…
I’ve been playing The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy. I’ve been really enjoying it. There’s a bit in the game where I think it went from “great”, to “fantastic”. Something where I genuinely starting yelling at the screen “no way, no way, holy shit, you can’t, no way, really? Oh wow.”
Will report how I feel once I finish it, but I’m really loving this now, super into it.
8 Likes
I’ve still been playing Helldivers 2 every now and then. It’s still a very fun horde-shooter where you can just drop in and mow down crows of mindless enemies for some fun.
Or, see your character get flung into a crowd of enemies by explosion, and die a most ridiculous death.
On the rare occasion I choose to do high-level planets, then its a terrifying fight for survival, or nail-biting/maybe slightly-bored waiting to see if the Last Survivor can stay alive long enough to bring the team back.
But just every now and then. Its a fun game loop, but can get a bit old if ya play too much (or just have a frustrating session)
So, I’m very close to getting enough Premium Currency to unlock my third Warbond Pass in this without spending a dime on this game! (Apart from launch of course.)
And, it’s been a while since the last Major Update in Dec. that brought in Illuminates. Great update, btw, yay.
And, well currently in the ‘story’ Super Earth says we have fully defeated the Illuminates, once again! (some stragglers remain, but that’s a non-issue 
) and Arrowhead just posted an in-universe tease about some “Illuminates Are Dead, Celebrate!” Party happening next month…
Hmmm, methinks, this may be teasing something big?? (It’s not a new Warbond of Armours/Strategems since that’ll be releasing a week earlier…) 
6 Likes
It’s insane. I finished the initially stated ‘goal’ of reaching room 46 on day 45, but i’ve just wrapped up day 110 and it still feels like there’s a looong way to go. I just found a key that led to a document that potentially might link to something found on day 1, but of course it’s torn in half so there’s clearly some other parts to be found, and then figuring out what it actually means…
1 Like
I decided to treat myself to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and, holy merde, it’s so good.
I’ve got a few quibbles. The movement can be a bit janky, especially around the boundaries of areas. No manual saving is certainly a choice and while I kind of like what they were going for with no mini/area map and no sidequest tracking, it also makes backtracking for that overpowered optional boss a pain in the ass.
I have mixed feelings about the dodge/parry QTEs in particular. On the one hand, I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, I suppose because, unlike in more actiony Dark Souls-type games, I can focus just on the timing of the enemies attack patterns without worrying about when to work in my own attacks or whatever. On the other hand, my brain has never done well with those kinds of things, so it would be nice to have some sort of concrete feedback on whether or not I’m missing too early or late.
Still, combat is a lot of fun, the bosses are challenging and each character feels unique, with a lot of variety to play around with, including a few ways to lean in to my poor dodging ability. Plus there’s a whole series of creepy giant mime puppets to beat the crap out of.
And everything else is amazing. The world is rich and vibrant. The story is intriguing and emotional, with that beautifully melancholic doomed pilgrimage vibe of FFX, but in its own unique (French) way. The areas/dungeons are gorgeous and have all kinds of secrets to find. The voice acting is stellar (even if part of my brain keeps picturing Daredevil every time Gustave opens his mouth). And the music is varied and evocative, rivalling Uematsu or Mitsuda at their best. (If Lorien Testard doesn’t win all the awards, there’s something seriously wrong.)
It’s remarkably impressive. I don’t think I’ve been this immediately enamored by an RPG since…FFIX, maybe? I might even end of figuring out this whole “parrying” thing. 
7 Likes
As per vote I played RDR2 and it was quite fun. I enjoyed just riding through the nature and taking in the atmosphere, bringing in meat for the camp. I ended up disliking how linear everything is but I did not really expect anything else, it was still a really quality experience.
When the story was over I took a visit to the RDR1 map that is accessible past Blackwater and I am kinda confused how all that ended up being unused by the plot. Maybe I missed something, dunno.
I then played God of War for two hours before putting it away again. I was not aware how much hack n slash this game is so all fault to me. Got it on sale so no big deal.
I now finished Disco Elysium and boy is this a hilarious game. The way the roleplaying was laid out was so new to me that I really digged into it, comparing to other games where I end up just ignoring half of the things they offer you.
I also think the dialogues must have been written by a professional book author. Impressive!
I really enjoyed being the whacky unstoppable and shameless detective. I was kinda sad the blank-slate premise did not allow me to have a romantic ending with my partner as it seemed so obvious to me this is possible. But anyway, the actual ending was a bit of a letdown but I enjoyed the ride there. I may play it again some time with a different take, I wonder how far I come with being the bad muscle guy for example.
Next up will be Robocop. 
9 Likes
RDR2 early in development plot was suppose to bleed into New Austin. For perspective in game development dialogue recording is one of the more earlier steps in it. Arthur Morgan has various unused dialogue exclusive to content in New Austin/ Side Missions that need you to go to New Austin to complete down to Cutscenes.
By extension even the Sheriff in Tumbleweed has unused dialogue involving Arthur.
RDR2’s story had a lot of cut content, but most of it was repurposed for side content and NPC’s. Some stuff is still technically available through glitches or mods too.
Even the prologue was suppose to be longer and more depressing with at one point in development Arthur having a newborn baby that froze to death on the mountain during the Colter Chapter.
5 Likes
Is someone here playing R.E.P.O.?
I really would love to play this with others. I tried to find some people on their official Discord channel but it’s always hard finding friendly people when they are complete strangers, especially as a woman 
So I wanted to ask if some of you are playing this game or would like to try it out together? 
it looks so fun and I would love to play it with others. I played the single player mode but it was no fun at all 
3 Likes
Thanks to your votes.
I’ve started playing Horizon Forbidden West, and it’s already blowing me away 
—especially the opening cutscenes after the tutorial. That Cobra fight and the meaning-rich journey song now - WOW !!
Having played the first part, Horizon Zero Dawn, I was fully satisfied. Hats off to Guerrilla Games (Amsterdam-based developers), who have once again done an outstanding job crafting a rich, immersive world - I am now just after the opening title part and a huge fogged up map to explore.
I’m truly grateful for European video games industries, which continues to impress with unique innovation, art and craftsmanship. IO Interactive, CD Projekt (Witcher), Arkane Studios (Deathloop) and a lot more.
Next in my tentative playlist is Enotria: The Last Song (Jyamma Games - Italy).
There isn’t much review in internet about this game and no information in this page/hitmanforum yet.
7 Likes
Jusant
I needed to (re)play a short game to relax, forget, and recenter myself a bit.
Love the art style and environements.
Soundtrack is beautiful, usually absent, but comes to elevates sequences at the right time, with the right tone.
Gameplay is traversal only, the rythm and design is excellent. Longest climbing portions feel exhausting, with the control meant to transmit the physicality of the climb, with success. Other moments are more contemplative.
(If you have game pass, pc or console, and a few hours, take a shot at it.)
8 Likes
I loved Jusant and was just thinking about it yesterday! Played it when it came out. Really great little contemplative game.
5 Likes
If you’re on pc and liked Jusant then i’d highly recommend checking out Cairn. There’s no release date yet but there’s a demo on steam which i’ve already sunk 11 hours into. It’s another climbing game, but you control each limb individually, and there’s no specific highlighted routes to the top - just here’s a mountain, get to the top however you can/want to. I’m really looking forward to the full release.
6 Likes
I’ve been playing Ghost of Tsushima the past few weeks.
It’s a wonderful, gorgeous game. Very cinematic, probably very romanticized version of ancient Japan and its Samurai culture and codes, but as a video game, it works for what it wants to be/tell.
It does fall into some repetitive collectibles busywork and “go to the question marks” map design that Ubisoft titles do, but it makes up for it in spades with very minimal UI and a focus on in-world guidance markers such as following golden birds to undiscovered locations or foxes to upgrade shrines
(And I’ve been using the “expert” HUD style recently which makes some UI elements smaller/more infrequent and removes text from some button prompts)
Plus, the writing is very good, with quite moving side-missions and stories at times. Not to mention the main plot about Jin’s fall from his rigid Samurai code and into guerilla tactics and shinobi tricks to combat the immense Mongol invasion is good. It’s just very cool, and well-performed by the actors.
(When it comes to some mission “cutscenes” though, a lot of them usually involve two characters standing and talking with camera cuts, some canned animations that flow together nicely, but stand out compared to some of the more impressive clearly-motion-captured scenes. Again, very barebones ubisofty.)
From what I’ve seen of the sequel already, it looks like they really improved the facial capture and animation tech, so hopefully that deepens the immersion for the more simple scenes when that game comes out.
I also really love how the game is chock-full of random encounters with unique dialogue and interactions. Some are really short “tiny stories” that just involve Jin approaching some NPC, something happens or you do one task, then that’s it and you feel something.
Others are like, “Hey, this person is sick, please help track down how this water poisoning happened and stop it” which triggers a whole in-world, non-tracked mini-mission of following environmental details to fulfill the quest and get some bonus XP out of it. It’s cool!
I’m in the middle of Act 2 of the story and just started the IKI ISLAND expansion. Yes, most people probably played this after they’d finished the story, but the devs did let you unlock it by Act 2’s start, and I’ve heard it adjusts a bit based on how far into the Main Story you are…
Though it’s also quite tougher than the main game since enemies can changes stances on the fly like you can, and also have much quicker attacks. But I’m very skilled already, so I can still scrape by.
Opinion varies but I found this cool discussion about how it’s narratively satisfying to play the DLC mid-story. (I decided to go to Iki before I get the Sakai Armour, as the DLC heavily focuses on Jin’s samurai father and legacy.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/ghostoftsushima/s/JJlsH7hiTF
So far, so cool. The main hook of this area is that Jin gets shipwrecked basically, so you’re locked into this area until you can probably get help to get out.
Also, he’s poisoned by a new Mongol tribe called the Eagle Tribe that uses a powerful hallucinogenic poison to control and manipulate their prey.
It’s especially cool since I assume until I finish the Main Missions of the DLC, Jin can encounter tons of random encounter hallucinations or dead bodies that are pretty cool or spooky. It also changes some tasks (like Lighting Lighthouses for XP, where one time I did it, it immediately gave me a hallucination of Jin’s dad appearing and talking about it.) You also get every now and then flashes of Jin’s inner psyche portrayed by The Eagle - evil mongol cult leader, taunting him of his insecurities and faults.
EDIT: Holy shit, I’m playing it right now and I just encountered a vision during a Hot Springs activity (the most chill places in the game for meditation) - the Eagle asking Jin to “take your sword, open your wrists, and slip under the water” 
- And also after saving someone in one random enemy encounter: it referenced a side mission in the main game!! God, they put a lot of work into this main plot hook bleeding into the open-world busywork…! 
And speaking of Detail, I like how the Main Menu changes based on which Act in the story you’re on, plus if you’re in Iki or not!
“New Game” is your basic sword-blowing-in-white-field scene.
Going to Legends Mode changes it red with papers flying in the wind.
And while I am on Iki and also Poisoned, the Continue option turns the screen a tinted purple and has lavender/poison petals(?) blowing in the wind too.
I’m playing the game in English on Normal.
But I’m already thinking of doing a New Game Plus playthrough in Kurosawa Mode (JP+subs, B&W filter, increased wind) on Lethal difficulty lol (both enemies and yourself do more damage/die quickly by the blade)
…and I should also probably watch a Kurosawa movie since they were clearly big inspirations on the team.
Anyway, someone talk to me about this game and what you liked about it, I need to gush about it more haha 
6 Likes