Just finished watching TheChicken’s playthrough of Night in the Woods and it’s such a charming little game
A lady leaves college amid a quarter-life crisis and comes back to her small hometown in the rust belt, where she rekindles things with her now-adult friends and goes through a journey of self-discovery, existentialism and the passage of time across a backdrop of mysterious paranormal happenings.
It’s not the kind of genre I’d have played or even watched, but Chicken’s chilled out narration style and the cute artstyle gave watching it a very ASMR-y quality that complemented the cozy autumnal esthetic of the game. He also does a great job of giving different characters distinct voices, which helped when I got the zoomorphic animal characters mixed up
So if you’ve heard of the game and thought “A side scrolling philosophical adventure about a cat lady and her childhood friends? I ain’t playing that” then maybe give this playthrough a watch
Episode 0 is a primer for the characters, Episode 1 is the beginning of the game itself
The game also does a good job giving unique dialogue for each character, represents LGBT characters without it being patronizing, and manages to switch back and forth between human and supernatural explanations of the events of the game.
If you relate to graduating college only to return to your hometown to find the world’s moved on, or living in a rural area that is suffering from economic decline once the main employing site was shut down, this one’s a must. Mental health and feelings of stagnation that mirror the decline of the town are also prevalent in the piece, as well as the reluctant transition period between adolescent and adulthood (and trying to re-capture the carefree nature of the former, while society views you as the latter). Or if you just like dark tales told in a cute way
The only negatives I have, as Chicken did, are that the climax occurs very late into the game and with a large twist that would’ve been better spread out across its third act. Indeed after the twist and more or less resolution of the plot, the game abruptly ends and cuts to credits
Helldivers 2 has been killing me with this parody-level comedy writing the Officers on your ship say for the new Cyberstan event.
“The cyborgs were the TRUE masterminds of the Automatons, a development NONE could have forseen!
…But one must always anticipate that which cannot be anticipated!”
I recently played a demo for an upcoming game called “Final Sentence”.
It’s a typing battle royale game, you have to finish various pre-written sentences before your opponents do. Make 3 mistakes, and a round is added to the gun pointed at your head, Russian Roulette style.
Very neat, especially to glance at the leaderboards mid-match. I averaged about 55-60 words per minute, near the top of the average players usually.
I never played the Metro games so I began with that a bit back. Finished the 2033 and Last Light. It way okay, the setting is nice and the story works out. But I really am not into these linear level designs anymore it seems. It all happening in tunnels kinda makes it worse for me.
Still I am glad I played them so I am up to date to the lore with Exodus. And man this is so much more my alley. I basically do what I loved about Fallout 4, exploring the wasteland with as little gear as possible. I am only at the first outdoor location yet but I dig it.
I absolutely love Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light, two of my favourite FPS games. Metro Exodus on the other hand, not so much. Thought that Metro lost a lot of it’s identity with the third game, I hope to see the 4th game return to the tighter and more linear level design.
Yes, I am lucky that the identity is not imprinted on me but it makes sense that a Metro game happens, well, in the metro.
I could imagine a game where you have Moscow above and below ground and you could decide where to roam. Besides the missions that usually happen on either side.
Personally I’m sick and tired of Shooters that are either open world, semi-open world hubs, especially if they come from a corridor shooter background. In general I’m not big on open world experiences anymore. There was a moment where a lot of games had to implement open world elements.
I enjoy a tight corridor shooter that doesn’t outstay it’s welcome.
I enjoy open world games but not all of them. The setting must be enjoyable for me and it must feel meaningful to me to explore it. For example in Fallout locations often feel unique or offer things to collect. On the other hand in Assassins Creed games the locations or loot are rarely unique. Most often you just earn money that becomes meaningless if you have too much of it.
Currently in Metro Exodus things feel unique so far but as I said I am not yet very far. I also mostly just enjoy these open worlds because it is not a corridor packed with action like in the other Metro games but instead hubs with action and in between there are enemies I can bypass if I want. I often come from work and just don’t want to play games that are 100% action. I need to relax a bit too.
I actually enjoyed the surface levels of both 2033 and LL a lot more than the underground. They felt more tense (in no small part thanks to the gas mask filter mechanic), and the atmosphere more oppressive. Both games also had this weird dissonance for me, where they somewhat encourage you to stay stealthy, scavenge and save ammo, but then throw you into a shootout with a horde of monsters every now and then where you deplete most of it (at least I did, lol). Still, good games. Gotta give the books a whirl some day.
So last night @Silvereyes and I were playing some Dead By Daylight, just something funny happened I felt I had to clip.
A killer and a survivor cross paths. And keep walking away…
Disclaimer: I was mid-conversation, gushing about Alan Peak Wake again, don’t mind me.
Also dear god, my laugh gets more high-pitched the more intense it gets
In your defence, it was me who brought up Alan Wake that time. But yes, Alan Wake is peak. Codename gets confused when we talk about Alan Wake dancing with Hatsune Miku is totally canon
I don’t mind older titles as long they run. And I did not play any STALKER game either.
