Ah, gotcha! Yeah that makes more sense. BG3 is very impressive from a systems perspective and how flexible many of the encounters are for sure.

Crazy to hear that about BG3, the world is absolutely static there. NPCs are just standing around waiting for the player and there isn’t even a day/night cycle! The game has its qualities but a living dynamic world really isn’t one of them.

I’ve seen enough to tell you that this will be quite a whiplash after Sekiro, that’s for sure. This is more Dark Souls 1 than anything, although without the stamina. It’s slow, it’s clunky, you run away and kite a lot. If you unironically liked the combat in DS1 you might enjoy this.

But that being said, I think there is also a bit of a design choice in making the combat clunky and difficult. You’re playing as a 14-year-old girl and it’s a horror game. Enemies are supposed to be scary. You’re not supposed to easily go toe to toe with everything.

Though in fairness I’ve also barely scratched the surface, and it looks like the game is both full of tools to use for combat and that this is the intention - use whatever you can to survive. Again goes with the horror. Spells, decoys, temporary invisibility, even a flamethrower according to the trailer. Plus hit and run attacks, hiding and backstabbing and so on.

We’ll see where I land on it, but so far the rest of the game has been so intriguing that I don’t mind the combat regardless.

Just started Withering Rooms* today, a very unique horror roguelike with a great story, some superb world building and some ass janky combat.

Only 2-3 hours in but I am really liking what I see so far.

Most Wanted 2005 is an all-timer.

You can also try Chrono Ark if it gets stale, which I feel compelled to proselytize for every time roguelike deckbuilders come up now. Incredible game and super underrated somehow.

I’m exposed as a filthy console user XD

*glass shattering noises*

There might be some lower level person who has some writing credit left, I’m not sure. I know Anton Vill (who drew the thought cabinet) still works at ZA/UM and I think is involved in the artwork of Zero Parades. But none of the original creators of the IP are left, and none of the major contributors (Robert Kurvitz, Argo Tuulik, Martin Luiga) are left.

Oh… I didn’t realise you were on console. I highly doubt it :( I’m pretty sure save files are encrypted to prevent cheating, at least on PlayStation.

First game I got or first one I bought for my own money? The first game I ever got and played was Super Mario Land for the GameBoy. I remember when the hype around Pokémon Red/Blue coming to Europe was building I was trying to calculate how many weeks of allowance I would need to save up to afford it, so that might have been the first one I actually purchased, I can’t remember for sure if I bought it myself or got it as a gift. Diablo 2 launched a year later and I know I bought that one as I vividly remember the car ride back from the store, so otherwise that might be it.

All of these were of course incredibly worth it. I would never have gotten into video games without that GameBoy and Super Mario Land I think, and Pokémon was a formative experience for me as I got to participate in the whole Pokémania phenomenon. And Diablo 2 is one of the games I have the most hours in over my childhood, it kept resurfacing over my school years as me and the other gamers in my school would randomly get the urge to start playing Diablo 2 again randomly almost yearly over the course of like 8 years after its release.

Ah damn that sucks! :(

I’m sure there are save files to download at various points from the internet, but that’s not as fun either I suppose.

Yeah that would be fantastic.

Mine as well, although not super high up on it. I keep hearing good things though.

The game has no identity, it’s literally just stuff the team saw in other popular games thrown in haphazardly. It’s a soup. RDR2 had trains? Chuck it in there boys. Same with the random Zelda sky islands. There is some fun to be had in it I think and it seems to appeal to a certain type of gamer, but I wouldn’t expect the game to make any sense.

Depends on what issues you had with the way the game was. Some fundamental issues remain but the game is much better now than on launch. Here is a good video about it.

I forgot to ask the other day. What happened to your DS3 save?

Final Fantasy XV is the greatest fishing minigame for me personally. Haven’t played Okami though.

I have a feeling this will be to Owlcat was BG3 was to Larian.

INMOST

I have been hit by open world fatigue in my Rise of the Ronin playthrough and so I needed an intermission. INMOST is on 70% sale and has been on my radar for a bit after being recommended to play it some time ago, so I finally got around to it. It’s only a 5-6h game so it was perfect to sneak in, played through it in two sittings over two days.

I really loved this game. Puzzle platformers are not my genre of choice but this one felt perfectly fine for me. Not really any precision platforming to speak of and the puzzles were all intuitive enough that it never felt frustrating. Overall the gameplay felt smooth and tight and the generous save states on death further minimized frustration.

This game is not really about the gameplay though as much as it is a work of art. The pixel graphics are stunning, the art direction is perfect and the music is absolutely breathtaking. On top of that the writing is also quite good. The ending is a little on-the-nose for me for what is otherwise a nicely allegorical game, but even so it doesn’t bring my ratings down. There are even some quite funny moments here and there, despite the otherwise heavy themes.

Recommended for anyone that likes artsy indie games, especially if you enjoy darker themes and depressing vibes.

Out Fishing Demo

Wishlisted this when I saw the announcement trailer so I had to check out the demo when it dropped last week. It was… okay. It was much worse than it looked from the trailer and worse than I had hoped in general. It’s a shame because the concept is great and has tons of potential. Fishing and horror is a great combination that fits together perfectly. Unfortunately the fishing mechanics are too simple to be really engaging and the horror is pretty bland. It also goes too hard and fast into shock value and jump scares and whatnot instead of doing what a horror fishing game in an isolated setting should do: slowly build suspense and unsettling atmosphere and work with creepy environmental storytelling.

I’ll still keep it wishlist to keep track of it as I like fishing games but I am much less hopeful now than when I first saw the trailer.

Can’t really say this makes me particularly sympathetic towards Max. The question was pointed for sure, but still completely within the limits of reasonable journalism. Max has no obligation to answer, but he shouldn’t have this power to control the narrative either. He’s there to answer questions from accredited reporters, not talk to select few people who can spin him softball questions. Excluding journalists whose reporting you don’t like, throwing tantrums, carrying a petty grudge for months and acting on it unprovoked much later… All very Trumpian honestly. Don’t really like any of it.

Also if you don’t want to face questions about deliberately driving into people, maybe you don’t deliberately drive into people?