I didn't play an AC game from 2 to Black Flag and then again from that to Odyssey. Long as fuck but good fun. Especially now as there's an item to make assassinations a sure hit, more in keeping with the older games.
Got back into playing Pokemon Unite, mainly because I'm just waiting for Lapras and Umbreon to be released. Lapras is supposed to come out next month, no idea about Umbreon yet. Things in this game are still insanely overpriced but it's w/e I'm used to it.
Does anyone use their steam trading cards? I just figured to ask in case anyone doesn't and wants to clear out their inventory. I like to collect the badges and stuff to raise my account's level, personally.
I like Valhalla a lot, enough so that I 100 percented the map and objectives but also that game cured me of my brain worm need to complete all or as much of an area in the first visit before moving on because at some point I both became unstoppable but also every new place had like a dozen shit to do and it became too much. Still did it. But I haven't played the DLC even though I want to before the new game comes out because if nothing else I still like these games for the dumb story going on and Valhalla somehow got even dumber and I love it.
I also haven't used Fanatical. (And only recently heard of it on Reddit. Where some people were complaining about how they've been raising their prices.) How's their customer service? If you've used them before.
Humble Bundle took three days to give me an obvious robot email. I've been tempted to review most of my Steam games. (Especially the indies.) But it would take a considerable amount of time. (Plus, I’ll likely go back and give certain games a 2nd chance, before I leave an unfavorable review.) So I'm debating on whether to do it or not…
That—and I now have a dozen or more new games to play. Thanks to Steam’s 'Spring Sale’ making most of my Wishlist discounted. (And enduring the intense boredom of house sitting.) With my original intention of getting through some games that I got from random bundles again. So here's hoping that I can find some diamonds in the rough…
Instead of all these disappointments...
Clustertruck - Controls poorly, and the RNG only hinders the player. So it managed to bore me quite fast.
Revolver360 Re:Actor - It’s a bit incomprehensible. But I don't dislike it per se. Though the minutes-long gameplay sessions aren't keeping me engaged. (And any tutorial whatsoever would've been nice to include.)
Bendy And The Ink Machine - The art style is nice. But its third chapter of 'find RNG items and avoid this spoopy monster that spawns in directly behind you' is incredibly flawed/boring to play.
Shadow Warrior - This game has strange controls, inconsistent abilities, unclear hit detection & bullshit exploding hazards. (My ex-roommate liked this one. But I sure didn’t.)
And as someone who quite enjoyed the original trilogy of games, I did not expect ‘The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles’ to be such an insufferable bore. But it really does have the worst (and most dead simple) mysteries of any game that I’ve played in recent memory. (Saying nothing about how awful both the characters and writing is on top of it...)
Games I'm Still Playing: Cult Of The Lamb: It’s really good at keeping you playing. But the game’s shallowness only gets more apparent in its second half. (As I was experiencing a lot more bugs than before.) Plus, it’ll keep repeating the same trick of forcing you to quit your dungeon run, or else several of your cultists will die. So you’ll be done with all the cult upgrading, long before you can complete (or get tired of repeating) the other combat dungeons.
But at least the Devs are still adding even more content to it. (Hopefully with some bug patches included.) Though I wouldn't know as of yet, since I decided to play some other things too…
Environmental Station Alpha: Goddamn. And I expected this one to be something that I’d immediately like. It’s immediately challenging, and it’s very familiar to how Axiom Verge started off. But its control setup is f*cking busted, to put it lightly. (For instance, turning “D-PAD only” on, is the only way to get the controller's stick working? For some reason. Otherwise its control menu has a seizure and starts changing all the settings by itself.)
So it took some time to get my controller working, and then after I beat a boss and acquired the hookshot. (The world’s worst hookshot in all of video games, but I digress.) It somehow combined my jump and hookshot ability to the same button. Canceling out my jump and making it literally impossible to progress onward. (But I couldn’t change it in the settings, nor save and restart.) So I had to repeat the boss fight, as the controller suddenly stopped working and forced me to do it again. So THEN I succeeded—and found myself stuck forever in a room requiring TWO jumps with the hookshot. (Then four more in the very next room, before you have any chance to save.)
So uh. It didn’t surprise me that I found numerous “this developer has clear contempt for the player” posts on forums. (Maybe it's where HAAK got its inspiration...)
But I’m continuing for now, in hopes that it’ll improve…
Environmental Station Alpha certainly made me swear a lot. But it fails to deliver rewarding exploration, and at providing boss fights with a fair challenge. Its smattering of HP upgrades (eight max) give you 2 HP each. Yet they're still incredibly frustrating to get. (Single attacks can and often do more than 2 HP.) Most areas have no rewards whatsoever, and its platforming is only difficult because the hookshot is terribly inconsistent. (Straight up will not do the same thing twice in many instances.)
Stopped at a three phrase boss fight (midway through the game) that has many attacks that spawn at random and overlap. To make it likely that avoiding one, means frequently getting hit with the other. But he’s also invincible for long stretches of time. So you’re doing nothing but losing all your health to bullshit attacks. The second phase is where it becomes completely unfair, as the camera zooms in and it becomes impossible to see the numerous attacks that are coming from off-screen. The third phase (I didn’t even bother getting this far) requires the hookshot to work flawlessly. (And it doesn’t.)
And this was right after the last two phase boss fight had pulled the exact same fucking trick. (Multiple overlapping attacks that go off-screen.) Apparently this boss requires a random secret weapon upgrade to make the fight bearable. But I couldn’t be bothered.
Even the developer sounds like he knew he fucked up with this boss. But he clearly didn’t fix it. And the reward for beating this boss like many others is—nothing.
Though I could tell that it was “one of those games”, where the game basically cheats you the first time you fight them. And after death upon death, the boss fight simply gets easier every failure. So you’ll do better each time, regardless of how well or poorly you play. (It was really obvious with the two phase boss fight. As the third time in, the boss was barely attacking in comparison to the first two times.)
So sure, if I wasted more hours of my life, I would’ve gotten past it. But maybe the game should’ve given me any kind of interesting characters, dialogue, a decent song/soundtrack, combat that meant anything, etc etc, that made me want to keep going.
<Snipped quote by Kuro> I usually sell them for cheap.
I also haven't used Fanatical. (And only recently heard of it on Reddit. Where some people were complaining about how they've been raising their prices.) How's their customer service? If you've used them before.
I just ask about the trading cards because I like to complete the badges and level up my profile. Some people don't care about that stuff or aren't interested in selling them for 2 cents or whatever, so I ask around to see if they don't want them and if not I take them off their hands if they're willing to give them away to me.
I haven't had much issue with Fanatical in the past. There were moments where it didn't want to let my order through, but it resolved pretty easily. Just so you're aware though, they are based in the UK, so you do get charged a few cents or so for currency conversion.
Tried playing some more unite a moment ago but the servers are absolute ass right now lol
I play the mobile version since I don't have a switch of my own atm. Couldn't get into a game that just started. Thought it was my wifi so I turned data on just so I could play it out, still couldn't get in. So I close out of the game and then reopen it, finally get in after a second. Once the game's over I keep getting loading animations and slow wait times until it shows me I have 999ms.
Honestly, for as much as they want to monetize the fuck out of cosmetics in this game, they should have the money to invest in new servers. People paying $40 a skin only to get unplayable games lmao
Dungeon Defenders 2: Someone wanted me to play this game with them. So I gave it a try solo. (And this game crashed so badly within thirty minutes of playing, that I had to forcibly shutdown and reboot my PC.) But I’m sure this (Smite-like tower defense game) would be fun to play with a friend group.
Gatekeeper - Eclipse: Basically a top down Risk Of Rain. It plays alright. (Had no obvious bugs or control issues.) Though it only has three levels, five enemies and one boss that repeats infinitely. So I didn't give it too much of my time. But it serves as a reminder that I should play more game demos. (Bloody Hell was still way too good to be free.)
Unheard - Voices Of Crime: Was a decent enough mystery game, that was a bit on the short side. (Even if it does have a free downloadable case.) But it has a fun gimmick, and it's fairly priced. (When I got it on sale). Though a game that revolves around listening to characters talk, could’ve used some better voice actors…
Foretales: A mixed bag. I have some issues with this game. Both on a technical and story level. So this might not be a ringing endorsement. But there’s plenty of potential here. (And it was far more engaging than the last several games that I played.) But I stopped after “ending” the first branching narrative that forces you to go back to the start. (Because the last few levels were a bit too trial and error for my taste.)
And I don’t understand why nearly every indie story has a branching narrative gimmick, where it claims “your choices matter”, yet it forces you to fail and repeat sections you’ve already completed. (But I think I got the point, after completing each section and the obviously liberal side character concludes every single conversation with “Gee golly buddy. I know we were attacked by slave traders, evil cultists, armed pirates, and literal zombies. But I don’t think we shoulda killed nobody.”)
Maybe I’ll go back sometime. Hopefully when the ‘Save Game’ button actually matters…
Pronty: (First impressions.) Yay. I might’ve found another Metroidvania gem. It’s already challenging, but fair in its difficulty. Has charming characters, and an adorable MC. (That I must protect.) It’s doing rewarding exploration well enough for how linear it starts out. And I’m enjoying the atmosphere/improved “Ori and The Blind Forest”-esque combat. So here’s hoping that it only gets better…
Been playing Minecraft again for the first time in years with one of my siblings and some of their friends (we're playing on a beta 1.7.3 world via hamachi connection). Been building the base for a giant circle, which is painful when you have to manually mine each block in Survival mode for supplies. That and the fact that I've had to carve out chunks of a mountain and build a extensive platform over the sea. But I like building mega structures, so it's worth it.
