@Accidental_Kills98 So, I finished Disco Elysium, or at least, reached one of the endings of Disco Elysium.
So I interrogated Ruby. Managed to disable her Pale machine. Then she put a gun to her head. I tried to talk her down. She pulled the trigger. Shit, that was tough. Tempted to rewind and retry the check, but thought, no, need to live with the consequences. Things can’t get any worse.
So I went back to the inn where there was a standoff. Found out that there were 3 mercs, not just 2. Tried to talk the leader down. Failed. Decided to take the shot. Blew a hole in his face. Managed to save Kim from getting killed. Got the 3 mercs killed and 4 Hardie boys killed. Double shit. At least Titus and co seemed to think I did the right thing.
Went to the island. Found the Deserter, got him to confess. Also found the Reed creature, talked to it, got Kim to takes it picture. Went back to the mainland, met my colleagues from Precinct 41. Got them to keep me on, and got to recruit Kim as well. I guess I overall liked how the mystery played out but a little wary about the culprit being someone who we don’t meet before and in essence caused alot of aftershocks by accident, but still, fantastic game, fantastic narrative.
I still have my Cartridge, not the original but the DX version for the GB Color. I really enjoy the remake, its extremely faithful to the original, just a graphical overhaul and some QoL improvements - this is a Remake done right and exactly what we need for Codename 47.
Rather unexpectedly, considering how focused I’ve been on them lately, I’ve actually put Hitman 3 and Assassins’ Creed: Rogue on the back burner for now to play a game I haven’t touched for the better part of a year: Resident Evil: Village. Don’t know why precisely, but I got an urge to play it again today while at work and got right to it when I got home. Frankly, I think it’s @MrOchoa’s fault for posting that pic of the Heisenberg character from that game last week and reminding me that there’s another character with that name, whom I like, that’s out there.
I put them at about even. They both embrace different tropes of the horror genre and scare you in different ways, both jump scares and disturbing atmosphere. Depending on my mood, I can’t decide between them. It’s like choosing the Universal monster movies of the 30s against the slasher movies of the 80s; can’t pick.
I love the way 8 is laid out from a gameplay perspective. It breaks down well and each section is good, and stays short enough that it doesn’t get old. Especially the Beneviento manor.
I finished The Last of Us for the first time about a week ago. The gameplay and companion AI can be a bit wonky, especially towards the beginning, but the story is absolutely incredible. I vaguely remember hearing some complaints from back when it first came out about the player not having a say in Joel’s final decisions at the end of the game but I disagree. As the game progresses, whenever he has a choice, Joel consistently chooses Ellie over anything else, so, if the end played out any differently, I would have been stunned.
A lot of the technical issues seemed to clear up after Bill’s section, which was also around the time I started getting used to the controls. However, there were still moments after that when I had no idea how an enemy got where it did and a couple areas, specifically the cannibal section, were rife with some… uh… questionable hit boxes. These didn’t detract from the overall experience, however, which was amazing. I’m looking forward to Part II, despite the, um, divisive response amongst fans, and being able to form my own opinion about it.
In other news, I’m in the middle of a Resident Evil 2 (remake) run to get the trophy where you don’t use the item box. When I initially started it, I thought it’d be a silly sort of thing to add a little spice to a great game; I didn’t anticipate just how much it actually adds. It introduces this whole strategic resource management aspect that kind of makes me want to never use an item box offered in any other Resident Evil game.
Also, I’ve had a hankering to play Bioshock again lately so I started a new play through. That twist is one of those things I wish I could experience for the first time again and the atmosphere of Rapture is perfect. I’m also noticing things that I’ve never noticed before, namely the tail of the plane actually sinks when you’re on the surface and the first couple passages that the tail eventually comes to rest in actually keep flooding. I do wonder if it’s mostly from the remastered collection but even that is 6 years old at this point and it won’t stop me from looking for more things I’ve never seen. This game is one of my favorite gaming experiences ever and I try to play it every few years. I’m hoping this time it won’t overshadow the idea of the sequels so I can finally will myself to play them after this.
I’ve deeeefinitely got to try the Audio Commentary track on many other favourite games of mine. This one in Firewatch is really cool (and honestly I don’t know if it can be topped, with how it’s integrated in the game.)
This Audio Tour is very cool. Throughout the game world are littered these cassette tape boxes, (and sometimes concept art boards) where you can pick up a tape and hear from some people on the dev team about how/why they built the current sequence you’re in. It’s really interesting, and I assume will be especially useful to find the secrets in the game’s branching dialogue system.
Already, I’ve learned of
how they created the dynamic prologue music
how they loaded in a seamless world
branching dialogue secrets and Sean Vanaman’s fascination with ‘infectious language’
influences from Dallas Buyer’s Club in a Day Title Card transition
It’s super neat and has probably inspired me to hear more of that in other games.
Note for anyone interested in this Firewatch mode: The Tape Boxes are numbered, but that doesn’t indicate the order you’re supposed to hear them in.
I backtracked to get a tape I skipped, since it actually referenced the story sequence I was in.
Also, tape boxes change tapes every day. Box 3 has something different on Day 2. I wonder why the need for numbers then.
Ooh, I’m honestly glad you asked. It was fascinating to hear.
So, at an early point in the game you come across a pair of rowdy teens swimming far off in a lake. You can do a variety of things to tell them off: dispose of their fireworks in front of them, mess with their loud radio, or use your words. If you manage to get them to call you “a creep” for just doing your job, this has an effect later.
As you make your way back to your firewatch tower, you see a mysterious silhouette looking down on you from a cliff, then runs away. If you report it in, you’ll call the guy “a creep”, having picked up that lingo from the two teens.
It was something Sean Vanaman, the writer, loves to see happen in real life and wanted to incorporate that in the script somehow.
Where, if he’s with a co-worker at a bus stop and his friend sees someone “creepin’” then he’ll most likely use that word 12 hours later during a lunch break chat or something.
Been playing the Vita version of Digimon World Next Order. Wanted to play it for years but it never got an official English release for Vita, and I don’t have a PS4 so I just never played till now.
But since my Vita is hacked I circumvented the whole thing and am finally playing it in English and it’s so much fun. Been a huge Digimon fan forever and in particular I have a strong nostalgia with the first Digimon World which consumed my childhood even though the game isn’t super accessible or inviting. Other Digimon games are great, I wouldn’t have grinded for every Digimon in Cyber Sleuth if I didn’t love these little guys, but usually the other games are just more typical JRPGs which are fun but not the same weird niche I loved with the first World game.
Next Order is basically more of that first game I missed but with QOL improvements that I would recommend it to people without a bunch of asterisks.
Great game, no I don’t have bearmon yet before you ask. You know who you are.
Super awesome developer’s commentary that goes through a lot of how they created the different systems and art and story of the game, as well as being able to reflect a bit on the launch and what resonated with players.
Super insightful in the process, reveals a lot of fun secrets with the game’s open structure. Love how the clips are strewn around the game world from many members of the team, though it sucks you can miss a few if you’re not careful.
I was expecting a tense action-RPG-sci-fi, but here I am scared out of my socks from the most basic enemies and frantic soundtrack.
I don’t know if I can actually finish this demo, wasn’t expecting so many jumpscares from these enemies, or this game in general
