Hello everyone. Sorry I did not post this last Sunday, my friends got engaged last weekend so I was celebrating with them and my mind was elsewhere. Anyway, I have been playing The Outer Worlds 2. I picked the “Gambler” background and some characters in the game have made very hurtful remarks about it. I dont have a problem, I can quit any time I want. Hope you all have a good week
Ghost of Tsushima
Started again after two long hiatuses. When I first started it, I was impressed but only played a bit. Returning a couple of years later, I had no clue how to play any more, died a bunch of times, gave up. Now, I’ve taken 15 minutes to deliberately reacquire myself with the mechanics, reading through the skill tree, quest log etc, and now it clicked!
Some thoughts (no spoilers, I’m just in act 1 anyway)
When the shine wears off it’s a fairly standard open world game at its core and I don’t like those. Samey quests, repetitive events. For a bit I considered just playing the main quest but then thought better of it, instead I’m just embracing it how it is. I’ll follow the birds, climb all the little mountains, trace the footsteps, and just enjoy the moment-to moment mechanics, and then the story at its own pace.
The ludonarrative dissonance is real with this one. Some lady going hungry? Let’s grab the stack of 8 supplies behind her. 95% of the island population are bandits or Mongols. Following questlines simultaneously where one person is in two places at the same time. Oh no, healer late by minutes, after me putting off the quest for hours. Places I’ve cleared out moments ago are suddenly a bandit hideout.
Picking of enemies one by one or in small groups is encouraged by the combat mechanics, which falls flat when dealing with larger groups. But at the same time, the game narrative keeps reinforcing that it is wrong and bad of you to play so. This is similar to the criticism that can be aimed at games like Spec Ops: The Line, which try to confront you with the consequences of a choice you didn’t have (other than not playing).
Ni No Kuni: Also picked up again after a long while, and also the sort of game where you simply have to accept it’s gonna take a while. Enjoying it, but I found that encounters are either super easy, or they start going downhill (e.g. a character dies) and then there’s no saving it. There’s no goldilocks zone to it.
Resogun: Just one trophy to go, to finish the arcade mode on experienced difficulty without continues. Not in sight yet.
Astro Bot: Cleaning up the recently added challenge levels, now at the final one with the different powerups. No checkpoints!
The Settlers DS: How does this even exist! I love these kind of oddball handheld/console ports, which why I’m collecting them a bit, also e.g. Age of Empires on PS2 and DS, Civilization II on PS1, etc. For Settlers, I’ll probably just finish a campaign mission or two and call it quits.
Ghost of War: Chains of Olympus: got a 20 euro deal for the 2 PSP games so finally getting back on my God of War journey. Plays great so far. The sex minigame was something.