What are you playing this week?

It’s understandable to be wary, for sure. I’m hoping the game ends up playing as fun and exciting as it looks.

It helps that I’m a big fan of the kind of setting Horizon is going for. I love lush, overgrown post-apocalyptic settings so much more than the “blasted wasteland” variety. I’m really excited for Breath of the Wild for much the same reason, though I probably won’t be getting it right away because I kind of want to wait until I have a Switch.

In between occasionally hopping on FFXIV to mess around, I’ve been spending most of my free time working my way through Bully Scholarship Edition. I’m about halfway through the game, give or take, and it’s holding up well.

When it first came out I was only a couple years removed from high school and it felt, in a way, like going back. But here in the future year of 2017, it feels actually much the same way still. But this time it’s not a negative thing. Not hurting matters is the soundtrack, especially the generic background theme, with its amazing bassline.

More Psychonauts. Got past the Milkman level yesterday, which for all its cleverness is probably my least favourite level in the game. While I very much enjoy the level design, and the puzzles are a good idea on paper, its rather annoying to play for a number of reasons. There are several annoying instakill instances, the level is too big for the intended mechanics, and thus takes too long to complete, and the boss fight is pretty forgettable. It still remains a very memorable level because of the awesome level design and creepy atmosphere, so there’s that. A bit of fine tuning would’ve done some good here.

Been playing Yakuza this week. Going back to it after not touching it for 10 years sure does feel strange, especially when the last one you played was 4 which had a really good combat system

I’ve been playing a lot of Grandblue Fantasy and the game it has an event crossover with at the moment, Shadowverse.
I mostly spend my time in the in-game casino betting fake money to pass time.

Fallout: New Vegas. Started a fresh playthrough a while back and I just got Boone and ED-E, so basically I’m set in terms of partners.

Those two are my pals for life in that game. I really love New Vegas. That’s another game I should play through again soon.

I’ve been playing a mix of Nuclear Throne and Pillars of Eternity. Pillars I want to get through before Torment Tides of Numenera comes out (plus its just a good game I never got around to beating). NT I reached the Throne for the first time last night as YV so I’m feeling pretty good about being able to get a complete run at some point in the near future.

I got F:NV on sale a while back but haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. Considering all the praise I hear about it I really want to.

I can’t find my old splits for Contract J.A.C.K., so I played through it again. It’s a spinoff from the No One Lives Forever games, and it’s terrible. It wants to be a fast-paced shooter, something like Serious Sam, but it’s using a system build for a more stealthy shooter. At least the dialog’s kinda entertaining.

This is always a cluttered question for me. I’ve been messing around in Rez Infinite on PSVR, Psychonauts: Rhombus of Ruin, Night in the Woods, Fire Emblem: Fates (despite not really liking it, oddly enough?), Halo Wars 2… I’d recently started Dead Rising 4, ReCore, and have been puttering slowly through VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action. All of this while I’m putting my Kingdom Hearts series run on hiatus because holy cow I can only take so much of that series at once.

I play more mobile games as of late to help deal with the downtime at work, and over the last week I’ve been exclusively playing the new Romero Games release, Gunman Taco Truck. It’s a neat little run-based rougelikelike game that’s one part Oregon Trail, one part Cook Serve Delicious, and one part lane shooter. You travel through a post-nuclear fallout America in a taco truck, shooting mutated animals and then serving them to survivors as you make your way to Canada. It’s very hard but also a lot of fun, and it’s easy to get into a groove after a couple of runs. It’s got a good sense of humor and actually works really well with touch controls; I’ve never really felt myself wishing that I were playing it with mouse and keyboard or with a controller.

Video games, are pretty good.

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I’ve started plugging at Mekazoo during my downtime at work. And also I’m still on FE:Heroes. Watching LPs of fire emblem games too … reeeeally wondering if I should do something with a fan-translation of FE6… temptation too strong.

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I got Bersek and the Band of the Hawk which is basically your usual Warriors game, so I dig it. The game uses anime cutscenes which is fine, but it’s that really gross-looking 3D animation that’s used for the most recent Berserk anime.

To be fair, the Golden Age trilogy’s CGI is less awful than the 2016 Anime’s CGI, but I chalk that up to bigger budget.

So I didn’t realize I was basically in the endgame of Dark Souls 3, excluding the optional areas, so uh I just went ahead and beat that last night. After all the hype I’ve seen, the final boss was kind of a dick, but it was pretty cool anyway and the battle theme was fantastic. Not to mention (final area spoiler): seeing the Kiln of the First Flame presumably thousands of years after DS1, and all those buildings crushed up against the cliffside. I have no idea if it was supposed to be the remains of the Undead Burg or something, but it was an amazing sight nonetheless.

There were a couple of messages in front of the final boss door, though, that were all “Pure skill required ahead therefore good luck!” or something to that extent. Which made me feel like a scrub since I eventually resorted to summoning the NPC who’s available. I mean, how else am I going to get her stuff?

I finally started Yakuza 0 this week and I’m so glad to be back in Kamurocho (and Sotenbori). Oops I spent several hours racing tiny cars. Now I’m Majima and my god his intro was amazing.

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Got Night in the Woods after hearing so many people liking it.

I really appreciate how “out there” it gets while still feeling strangely grounded and, literally, home-ly. The only way I feel like I can describe it is like the Persona games but without any combat at all. I feel completely torn on who I should hang out with every day, if those even build to anything (I’m only about 5 hours in, and trying to see everything I can).

It’s also really weird how it never comments that the world is inhabited by animal people while “normal” animals still walk around.

I’m still at the point where the story is barely drip-feeding me information as to why Mae dropped out, but I’m hoping there’s some resolution later on.

Gonna keep at it in the coming weeks when I, unlike Mae, am not busy with college.

Also, Gregg is the best.

I impulsively decided to start playing Thief II. I haven’t played any of the other ones in the series.

I expected it to be clunky and outdated, but wow was I wrong. It plays really smoothly, and feels nothing like an old game. The atmosphere is super immersive, with the dark industrialist environments, the sound of guards’ feet stepping nearby, the orchestral stings, etc.

What’s really getting to me, though, is the sheer scale of the levels. I just spent about an hour completing the second level, and I did that while finding only a third of the secrets and doing the bare minimum for the easiest difficulty. I love how you’re encouraged to stray off the path, and just sorta roam about the place, as you find that the level you’re in spans so much farther than you initially thought. It’s a game that’s as deep as you want it to be, and I kinda love that.

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