DourCricket
This review is only for the the Immortal Empires Beta -
What an achievement the team has here! Over a dozen different races, several factions with unique mechanics for each, a sprawling world map with violence everywhere... I'll be playing this gem for years to come. Strongly debated 5 Stars but the beta is still a bit wonky and needs some more polishing but I'll be back for you Warhammer 3
What an achievement the team has here! Over a dozen different races, several factions with unique mechanics for each, a sprawling world map with violence everywhere... I'll be playing this gem for years to come. Strongly debated 5 Stars but the beta is still a bit wonky and needs some more polishing but I'll be back for you Warhammer 3
A delightful "update" to the classic narrative game. The New Content is really spectacular and weird, as expected.
2022
Elden Ring
#5
PC - Steam
Beaten March 11th, 2022
Elden Ring is the latest from Miyazaki and his team at From Software, and this game inherits the DNA started with their PS3 title Demon's Souls (I really should've properly reviewed the remake when I finished it last year...) - hard difficulty, esoteric storytelling, epic vistas, character building RPG action! In one way, Elden Ring is very much just Those Games Again But Open World This Time - stats, weapons, leveling, checkpoints - these things are basically identical to what has come before. Bonfires/Lanterns/Archstones are now Sites of Grace, Souls/Echos are now Runes, yadda yadda. However, while Elden Ring is in many ways a mere step ahead of its predecessors, in others it embraces its open-world and freer nature to make something truly new and special. And honestly since Breath of the Wild stepped out into open world, that is sort of what I have expected and even demanded of that genre of game - make it worthwhile and special! And where Zelda is one of the few to get it truly right, Elden Ring now joins that illustrious company.
A key part of Elden Ring is exploration - of the world around you at large, and all the nooks and crannies you will come across as you explore. Each little section of the game has SOMETHING for you to find, a new weapon, spell, armor piece, item.. not all are useful but that first time through can feel quite exciting. You'll be wandering around on your horse (Torrent, a fine steed at your side almost always in the open world. He's magic so you don't need to worry about where he is or any nonsense like that, whistle and you're on him and off you go) and see an enemy camp or odd landscape formation - I should go check that out you say! And yeah if you go over, you will almost certainly find something of interest. Perhaps a dungeon if you're lucky, though probably just an item or a new weird, fucked up enemy to test yourself against. This element is key to the magic of this game, no matter how tough things get, you can always just turn yourself around and head in a completely new direction: there's always more to do and more to discover, and the more you do and discover the more likely it is you'll have another tool in your arsenal to bring down that nasty SOB that's giving you trouble.
Speaking of enemies, there are a LOT of them here, along with the trademarked FromSoftware Bosses and their designs. Telegraphed boss rooms (with customary fog, GOLD this time!) lead to some cinematic encounters with enemies I had to bash my head into many many times to bring down, though there was (with 1 exception...) progress to be had each time. I do think this might be the weaker lineup outside of the main bosses in this game - there were a few standouts I can recall but in comparison to the many optional bosses of the Soulsborne games I do think a lot of these feel bit meh. Not that there weren't 'meh' bosses in those games as well, they just feel like they're at a higher concentration here due to all the mini-dungeons that contain pretty much all 7/10 bosses which dilutes things a bit. And then the ending has QUITE the gauntlet of very tough boss encounters that can get pretty exhausting - I was genuinely relieved when the Big Boss went down. Phew, time to move on finally! While the open world does lead to lots of positives ("what's that over there? Let's go check it out!") I do think it loses something from From's earlier, more tightly packed experiences.
I do think there are some weaknesses here as well - PC technical issues notwithstanding. The way you interact with the world is almost entirely through combat, puzzles are infrequent and usually just involve slashing something. As much as Breath of the Wild lacked in satisfying combat and often meager tangible rewards for exploration, it at least had a solid systems-driven world to interact with that often lead to some very creative and satisfying puzzles - and I do think Elden Ring missed the chance for some more diverse play options to keep me engaged beyond "oh shit I'm going to die in 3 hits to this enemy". Also the rewards you do find in the game unfortunately due to build variety means a lot shit will pop up that you have no real use for - for instance I was using a faith build which meant I could not use weapon arts for 80% of the game until I got a special item that let me transfer proper scaling to my stats, I had to use the one I had been using since nearly the beginning of the game. So then every time a weapon art reward popped up I was like "well, I'm sure that's nice for someone out there!" same of course with weapons that had high reqs for equipping or int magic.
Negatives aside, Elden Ring is a colossal game and an equally colossal achievement. The art direction is truly stunning, with multiple areas and zones in the game that caused me to legit stop and gasp out loud at what I was witnessing. The characters and stories you DO manage to find are compelling, and the exploration of this well-crafted world is almost always entertaining enough for its own sake rather than the oft useless (for your character, at least) rewards you find at the end. It's an experience that stands beautifully on its own, even if perhaps I will miss the perfect pace of previous efforts (Bloodborne you're perfect ilu)
Final Grade: A
#5
PC - Steam
Beaten March 11th, 2022
Elden Ring is the latest from Miyazaki and his team at From Software, and this game inherits the DNA started with their PS3 title Demon's Souls (I really should've properly reviewed the remake when I finished it last year...) - hard difficulty, esoteric storytelling, epic vistas, character building RPG action! In one way, Elden Ring is very much just Those Games Again But Open World This Time - stats, weapons, leveling, checkpoints - these things are basically identical to what has come before. Bonfires/Lanterns/Archstones are now Sites of Grace, Souls/Echos are now Runes, yadda yadda. However, while Elden Ring is in many ways a mere step ahead of its predecessors, in others it embraces its open-world and freer nature to make something truly new and special. And honestly since Breath of the Wild stepped out into open world, that is sort of what I have expected and even demanded of that genre of game - make it worthwhile and special! And where Zelda is one of the few to get it truly right, Elden Ring now joins that illustrious company.
A key part of Elden Ring is exploration - of the world around you at large, and all the nooks and crannies you will come across as you explore. Each little section of the game has SOMETHING for you to find, a new weapon, spell, armor piece, item.. not all are useful but that first time through can feel quite exciting. You'll be wandering around on your horse (Torrent, a fine steed at your side almost always in the open world. He's magic so you don't need to worry about where he is or any nonsense like that, whistle and you're on him and off you go) and see an enemy camp or odd landscape formation - I should go check that out you say! And yeah if you go over, you will almost certainly find something of interest. Perhaps a dungeon if you're lucky, though probably just an item or a new weird, fucked up enemy to test yourself against. This element is key to the magic of this game, no matter how tough things get, you can always just turn yourself around and head in a completely new direction: there's always more to do and more to discover, and the more you do and discover the more likely it is you'll have another tool in your arsenal to bring down that nasty SOB that's giving you trouble.
Speaking of enemies, there are a LOT of them here, along with the trademarked FromSoftware Bosses and their designs. Telegraphed boss rooms (with customary fog, GOLD this time!) lead to some cinematic encounters with enemies I had to bash my head into many many times to bring down, though there was (with 1 exception...) progress to be had each time. I do think this might be the weaker lineup outside of the main bosses in this game - there were a few standouts I can recall but in comparison to the many optional bosses of the Soulsborne games I do think a lot of these feel bit meh. Not that there weren't 'meh' bosses in those games as well, they just feel like they're at a higher concentration here due to all the mini-dungeons that contain pretty much all 7/10 bosses which dilutes things a bit. And then the ending has QUITE the gauntlet of very tough boss encounters that can get pretty exhausting - I was genuinely relieved when the Big Boss went down. Phew, time to move on finally! While the open world does lead to lots of positives ("what's that over there? Let's go check it out!") I do think it loses something from From's earlier, more tightly packed experiences.
I do think there are some weaknesses here as well - PC technical issues notwithstanding. The way you interact with the world is almost entirely through combat, puzzles are infrequent and usually just involve slashing something. As much as Breath of the Wild lacked in satisfying combat and often meager tangible rewards for exploration, it at least had a solid systems-driven world to interact with that often lead to some very creative and satisfying puzzles - and I do think Elden Ring missed the chance for some more diverse play options to keep me engaged beyond "oh shit I'm going to die in 3 hits to this enemy". Also the rewards you do find in the game unfortunately due to build variety means a lot shit will pop up that you have no real use for - for instance I was using a faith build which meant I could not use weapon arts for 80% of the game until I got a special item that let me transfer proper scaling to my stats, I had to use the one I had been using since nearly the beginning of the game. So then every time a weapon art reward popped up I was like "well, I'm sure that's nice for someone out there!" same of course with weapons that had high reqs for equipping or int magic.
Negatives aside, Elden Ring is a colossal game and an equally colossal achievement. The art direction is truly stunning, with multiple areas and zones in the game that caused me to legit stop and gasp out loud at what I was witnessing. The characters and stories you DO manage to find are compelling, and the exploration of this well-crafted world is almost always entertaining enough for its own sake rather than the oft useless (for your character, at least) rewards you find at the end. It's an experience that stands beautifully on its own, even if perhaps I will miss the perfect pace of previous efforts (Bloodborne you're perfect ilu)
Final Grade: A
2014
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
#4 --- 2022
PC - Steam
Beaten February 4th, 2022
Man I don't even like Megaman but this game is great
Pros:
This is going to be a long list...
Graphics are beautiful and the animations are terrifically expressive for all the characters.
Music is 10/10. Seriously, Strike The Earth tho
The bosses are amazing - design, the fights, the story with them and Shovel Knight
Story in general is simple but DAMN good - legit teared up twice. Shovel dreaming of Shield perpetually falling, unable to catch her... Gets me man.
World design and the upgrades found there. Getting to see the levels you are going to and how they fit into where you've been + being rewarded for doing extra shit. Though it has plenty of backups for those of us who were not so hardcore back in the day to help fix mistakes or if you missed anything you can just go back!
Cons:
Level design drops off a bit in the second half of the game, and while the difficulty curve is nice it does feel a BIT too frustrating near the end. Dying is a pretty light punishment by that point though.
Spikes and deep pits being 1-Hit KOs. I don't think I actually DIED properly once in the whole campaign - just missing a jump or a few pixels here and there and getting bounced into oblivion. Let me jump back up dangit!!!
Meh:
Some wild balancing on the relics. One that heals you up to full HP... and another that bounces a coin around randomly??
Hmmm:
Perhaps a biiiit too long? Or short? Something about the pacing is off.
Final Grade: A-
#4 --- 2022
PC - Steam
Beaten February 4th, 2022
Man I don't even like Megaman but this game is great
Pros:
This is going to be a long list...
Graphics are beautiful and the animations are terrifically expressive for all the characters.
Music is 10/10. Seriously, Strike The Earth tho
The bosses are amazing - design, the fights, the story with them and Shovel Knight
Story in general is simple but DAMN good - legit teared up twice. Shovel dreaming of Shield perpetually falling, unable to catch her... Gets me man.
World design and the upgrades found there. Getting to see the levels you are going to and how they fit into where you've been + being rewarded for doing extra shit. Though it has plenty of backups for those of us who were not so hardcore back in the day to help fix mistakes or if you missed anything you can just go back!
Cons:
Level design drops off a bit in the second half of the game, and while the difficulty curve is nice it does feel a BIT too frustrating near the end. Dying is a pretty light punishment by that point though.
Spikes and deep pits being 1-Hit KOs. I don't think I actually DIED properly once in the whole campaign - just missing a jump or a few pixels here and there and getting bounced into oblivion. Let me jump back up dangit!!!
Meh:
Some wild balancing on the relics. One that heals you up to full HP... and another that bounces a coin around randomly??
Hmmm:
Perhaps a biiiit too long? Or short? Something about the pacing is off.
Final Grade: A-
2021
Monster Hunter Rise
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 21st, 2022
A slow start to YEAR 3 (or 4...?) of the 52 game challenge - I was hoping to make a comeback last year after farting around a bit too much last year but NAY - there's a certain Hamburger on the way who will slow down my progress... MH Rise is the first completed game of the year, and only just. The 'main' story is complete and the credits have rolled but The Hunt has barely begun.. but I'm finished, myself.
Pros
The monsters are just awesome. Each has a distinct personality that you become quite familiar with as you play and fight them over and over and over again... You start to hate some and become very fond of others, but even the ones you hate are fun in their own way.
Art style here is off the charts. Rise has a distinct 'ancient Japan' vibe and it shines through in almost every element of the presentation. The graphics may not be as beautiful as World but the team presents a beautiful and colorful world here nonetheless.
Meh
As cool as fighting the monsters are, I just kinda get bored having to do it over and over, ya know?
Online fights are a CLUSTERFUCK - its neat to have an easier time with the monsters and to get to party up with others so easily but honestly it is disjointed at best. Maybe higher level play is more constructed?
Cons
Visual "noise" online is rough. 4 hunters and 4 pups makes things very messy to try and figure out what is going on, especially against small or medium sized monsters.
Hmm?
As cool as the armors are - can we please get some new ones??? 90% of what I've seen is also in World. I want my Fashion Hunter dammit!
MH Rise is a great game I sadly can't get THAT into, and it's really not the game's fault. Hunting down each monster, a boss fight unto itself, is engaging and the new movie intros for each is a lot of fun. Despite all that after a mere two hunts or so of each I just feel a bit... tired, ya know? Going back to the same maps, hitting the same gathering point, picking on small monsters just triggers something in my brain that makes me repelled. Fighting the monsters for cool gear is great but the layers and layers of ranks, gems, decos, alpha/beta sets, MR monsters - it's just a bunch of shit I don't want to deal with - I just want to fight some cool monsters, man!
Final Grade: A-
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 21st, 2022
A slow start to YEAR 3 (or 4...?) of the 52 game challenge - I was hoping to make a comeback last year after farting around a bit too much last year but NAY - there's a certain Hamburger on the way who will slow down my progress... MH Rise is the first completed game of the year, and only just. The 'main' story is complete and the credits have rolled but The Hunt has barely begun.. but I'm finished, myself.
Pros
The monsters are just awesome. Each has a distinct personality that you become quite familiar with as you play and fight them over and over and over again... You start to hate some and become very fond of others, but even the ones you hate are fun in their own way.
Art style here is off the charts. Rise has a distinct 'ancient Japan' vibe and it shines through in almost every element of the presentation. The graphics may not be as beautiful as World but the team presents a beautiful and colorful world here nonetheless.
Meh
As cool as fighting the monsters are, I just kinda get bored having to do it over and over, ya know?
Online fights are a CLUSTERFUCK - its neat to have an easier time with the monsters and to get to party up with others so easily but honestly it is disjointed at best. Maybe higher level play is more constructed?
Cons
Visual "noise" online is rough. 4 hunters and 4 pups makes things very messy to try and figure out what is going on, especially against small or medium sized monsters.
Hmm?
As cool as the armors are - can we please get some new ones??? 90% of what I've seen is also in World. I want my Fashion Hunter dammit!
MH Rise is a great game I sadly can't get THAT into, and it's really not the game's fault. Hunting down each monster, a boss fight unto itself, is engaging and the new movie intros for each is a lot of fun. Despite all that after a mere two hunts or so of each I just feel a bit... tired, ya know? Going back to the same maps, hitting the same gathering point, picking on small monsters just triggers something in my brain that makes me repelled. Fighting the monsters for cool gear is great but the layers and layers of ranks, gems, decos, alpha/beta sets, MR monsters - it's just a bunch of shit I don't want to deal with - I just want to fight some cool monsters, man!
Final Grade: A-
This review contains spoilers
Sucker For Love
#2 - 2022
PC - Steam
Beaten January 23rd, 2022
A ... cute... dating sim with Cthulhu!
Pros:
The dialogue with all of the "romances" is pretty cute, Ln'eta especially! There's a good balance between the "cosmic horror" you're unleashing vs. being kinda sweet?
Horror bits are quite well done. The first time you rip off your own face and see the bloody stump is a great "oh damn, they goin there" moment.
Art style for the characters is very good and expressive.
Humor is 100% on point. Just enough jokes about cosmic entities (I like my girls non-euclidian - so many curves!!) but also some DARK shit about the world ending to balance it out.
Cons:
Definitely short. Not just in terms of total hours but also each "route" doesn't feel super distinct just due to the length.
Meh:
The mechanic for "chanting" the words is very cool as a mechanic AT FIRST - then it gets a bit tiresome after twenty times and then for the new secret ending it was just annoying!
Hmmm:
y no cat girl?
Final Grade: B+
#2 - 2022
PC - Steam
Beaten January 23rd, 2022
A ... cute... dating sim with Cthulhu!
Pros:
The dialogue with all of the "romances" is pretty cute, Ln'eta especially! There's a good balance between the "cosmic horror" you're unleashing vs. being kinda sweet?
Horror bits are quite well done. The first time you rip off your own face and see the bloody stump is a great "oh damn, they goin there" moment.
Art style for the characters is very good and expressive.
Humor is 100% on point. Just enough jokes about cosmic entities (I like my girls non-euclidian - so many curves!!) but also some DARK shit about the world ending to balance it out.
Cons:
Definitely short. Not just in terms of total hours but also each "route" doesn't feel super distinct just due to the length.
Meh:
The mechanic for "chanting" the words is very cool as a mechanic AT FIRST - then it gets a bit tiresome after twenty times and then for the new secret ending it was just annoying!
Hmmm:
y no cat girl?
Final Grade: B+
2020
Carrion
#3
PC - Steam
Beaten January 27th, 2022
Carrion is a metroid-lite puzzler about a freakish monster attempting to escape an enclosed facility... but YOU'RE the monster this time! It's a very very cool premise that is unfortunately let down by some meager gameplay. There is combat but it is incredibly simplistic and wonky, there are puzzles but they're either straightforward or exasperating. So yeah, interesting game overall, held up mostly by its premise and 'feel'. While it is fun to rip through silly humans and be the bad guy, the actual GAME here of gaining new powers and moving between very samey hallways, military bases and water pipes gets old pretty fast. It took me 4 hours to finish Carrion and I was ready for it to end at about half the time.
Pros:
Awesome premise. Being a shapeshifting monster is super badass and watching yourself 'grow' and gain new powers as the game goes on is satisfying as HELL.
Sound design for the monsters and people. Ripping apart metal grates, roaring in bestial fury, the human crew screaming in terrror... it all sounds great.
Artstyle is pretty great for the monster at least. Bits of flesh glooping off, pounding through doors, nomnomoming scientists... good stuff. People and backgrounds are more "average", or at least don't stand out as strongly as the monster.
Cons:
Where to start....
The Puzzles are dumb 95% of the time. The solution is either right in your face and you progress (this generally has a nice momentum to it at least) or you realize what you have to do but now have to backtrack to either gain or lose some 'mass' to get different powers.
No map. Often not a problem as the game funnels you from one area to the next but it often returns you to old "hub" areas and you have no fucking idea where it means you to go. So then you just wander around looking for something unbroken/inactive that you now have powers to interact with and go from there.
Combat is bad. You basically auto-kill regular enemies but others have weird shields that have no counters and enemy AI is telepathic meaning setting traps is difficult at best, irksome at worst.
Meh
The Story. Again, great premise. The story as it is told however seems like its trying to tell something interesting (there's some 'flash sideways' to human characters you control) with this creature's escape and what humanity is up to but.... it goes nowhere and has no weight to it whatsoever.
Level design. There are a few cool levels (one that looks like you're in space!) but the others are just generic military bases. Not a lot of variety in where you're tearing through.
Metroidvania elements. You occasionally get new powers that let you traverse the map or fight differently but they are rarely used actively. They don't add much.
Hmmm
Different forms of your body have different powers. Neat differentiation but then it leads to several points where you're just hunting for dead bodies (need more mass) or looking for a spawn pool (need to drop some mass) so you can use the right power to progress. Sometimes this leads to interesting puzzle situations, sometimes not.
Final Grade: C
#3
PC - Steam
Beaten January 27th, 2022
Carrion is a metroid-lite puzzler about a freakish monster attempting to escape an enclosed facility... but YOU'RE the monster this time! It's a very very cool premise that is unfortunately let down by some meager gameplay. There is combat but it is incredibly simplistic and wonky, there are puzzles but they're either straightforward or exasperating. So yeah, interesting game overall, held up mostly by its premise and 'feel'. While it is fun to rip through silly humans and be the bad guy, the actual GAME here of gaining new powers and moving between very samey hallways, military bases and water pipes gets old pretty fast. It took me 4 hours to finish Carrion and I was ready for it to end at about half the time.
Pros:
Awesome premise. Being a shapeshifting monster is super badass and watching yourself 'grow' and gain new powers as the game goes on is satisfying as HELL.
Sound design for the monsters and people. Ripping apart metal grates, roaring in bestial fury, the human crew screaming in terrror... it all sounds great.
Artstyle is pretty great for the monster at least. Bits of flesh glooping off, pounding through doors, nomnomoming scientists... good stuff. People and backgrounds are more "average", or at least don't stand out as strongly as the monster.
Cons:
Where to start....
The Puzzles are dumb 95% of the time. The solution is either right in your face and you progress (this generally has a nice momentum to it at least) or you realize what you have to do but now have to backtrack to either gain or lose some 'mass' to get different powers.
No map. Often not a problem as the game funnels you from one area to the next but it often returns you to old "hub" areas and you have no fucking idea where it means you to go. So then you just wander around looking for something unbroken/inactive that you now have powers to interact with and go from there.
Combat is bad. You basically auto-kill regular enemies but others have weird shields that have no counters and enemy AI is telepathic meaning setting traps is difficult at best, irksome at worst.
Meh
The Story. Again, great premise. The story as it is told however seems like its trying to tell something interesting (there's some 'flash sideways' to human characters you control) with this creature's escape and what humanity is up to but.... it goes nowhere and has no weight to it whatsoever.
Level design. There are a few cool levels (one that looks like you're in space!) but the others are just generic military bases. Not a lot of variety in where you're tearing through.
Metroidvania elements. You occasionally get new powers that let you traverse the map or fight differently but they are rarely used actively. They don't add much.
Hmmm
Different forms of your body have different powers. Neat differentiation but then it leads to several points where you're just hunting for dead bodies (need more mass) or looking for a spawn pool (need to drop some mass) so you can use the right power to progress. Sometimes this leads to interesting puzzle situations, sometimes not.
Final Grade: C
Replaying for Elden Ring... holds up still!!
2020
I only played a few hours of the original back in the day... but yeah, another 5/5 Souls game!
2021
Another game in the Pixel Remaster series down! FF4 has been remade (again for the... fourth or fifth time?) to ape its original SNES look but with some modern touches and I am replaying it for the first time in over a decade since its previous remake for the Nintendo DS. I only got about halfway through the game in that last one since it was DAMN tough and I don't think I ever made much headway in the original (not owning a SNES) so this is my first real attempt at the game and I've no particular nostalgia for it. In fact I wasn't even going to GET this version of the game but got so hyped for FFV coming out soon that I just couldn't help myself and bought it!
Good
-The music, duh!
-Characters actually...
Bad
-Melodramatic at times
Meh
-Combat was fine?
Good
-The music, duh!
-Characters actually...
Bad
-Melodramatic at times
Meh
-Combat was fine?
A really great cRPG... that is perhaps a bit too long and of course the last chapter is a hot mess.
I hope I'll get around to writing a proper review one day.
I hope I'll get around to writing a proper review one day.
2021
The first Final Fantasy! I've been playing the PSP version off an on but rarely got very far in it - I played the original with a friend decades ago (we had fun making a bunch of different names based off our friends) but no idea how far we got. But then Square decided to remake 1-6 in a new pixel style and I decided to leap in from the start!
So from the get go - this game, despite the many cool additions over the years, IS OLD! The story is barebones even by low standards, there are lots of glaring gameplay oddities we'll get to, the pacing is off... but damn it is a solid game
The job selection process and getting to choose the names is very cool and adds replay
Story is barebones and then gets needlessly VERY confusing at the end for... some reason? To call you the hero I guess/to justify replaying with a new party.
So from the get go - this game, despite the many cool additions over the years, IS OLD! The story is barebones even by low standards, there are lots of glaring gameplay oddities we'll get to, the pacing is off... but damn it is a solid game
The job selection process and getting to choose the names is very cool and adds replay
Story is barebones and then gets needlessly VERY confusing at the end for... some reason? To call you the hero I guess/to justify replaying with a new party.
The end =(
A fitting end, at least.
A fitting end, at least.
Finished BG2 for the first time in a VERY long while! Evil Cleric/Ranger Sunrider continues her journey! Fresh off defeating the Shining Crusader and her evil Half-Brother Sarevok, incidentally saving Baldur's Gate twice, she has been captured by the evil mage Irenicus - tortured and experimented on, the mad mage keeps talking about her "heritage" and "power", trying to unlock it. But what use does he really have for the Bhaalspawn? You find yourself in a strange land and in short order both this mage and your best friend/sister Imoen is carted off by the local mages guild. Do you follow for revenge, curiosity, or to rescue someone you care for?
Baldur's Gate 2 is generally considered one of the best RPGs of all time and is one of my favorite games that I've beaten several times. It has however been several years since I managed to get all of the way through so I am delighted to report I still love it dearly. The game now has a much greater focus on your companions and each has a solid questline for you to follow and they're mostly very good? A Paladin who has trouble balancing his family life with his (very important) work, Jaheira's harper days catching up with her, Jan having a Very Serious moment actually with a former fling... characters had bits of personality in 1 (helped out by mods of course) but they really shine in BG2. The quests in general are all quite good - this is a proto Bioware "4 side/main plot points then follow the story to the end" though it is much more freeform here. You only need 20k gold to go after Irenicus/Imoen which is what gets the main plot back on track... taking hardly any time at all, really. This gives the game a great sense of freedom - you know you what your goal is, can get to it fairly quickly if you want but.. will you be ready for what awaits you if you move too quickly? It also helps a lot with replays because you can do things in whatever order strikes your fancy, or makes most sense for your character.
Baldur's Gate 2 is generally considered one of the best RPGs of all time and is one of my favorite games that I've beaten several times. It has however been several years since I managed to get all of the way through so I am delighted to report I still love it dearly. The game now has a much greater focus on your companions and each has a solid questline for you to follow and they're mostly very good? A Paladin who has trouble balancing his family life with his (very important) work, Jaheira's harper days catching up with her, Jan having a Very Serious moment actually with a former fling... characters had bits of personality in 1 (helped out by mods of course) but they really shine in BG2. The quests in general are all quite good - this is a proto Bioware "4 side/main plot points then follow the story to the end" though it is much more freeform here. You only need 20k gold to go after Irenicus/Imoen which is what gets the main plot back on track... taking hardly any time at all, really. This gives the game a great sense of freedom - you know you what your goal is, can get to it fairly quickly if you want but.. will you be ready for what awaits you if you move too quickly? It also helps a lot with replays because you can do things in whatever order strikes your fancy, or makes most sense for your character.
Breath of the Wild - GOTY 2017 by a bullet for much of the internet, bought a switch for it myself, and have now finally finished it! And not even on the switch... This Zelda games follows its series formula on paper - Ganon has returned to the land of Hyrule to cause Mayhem, Zelda is incapacitated for whatever reason, and now Main Character Link must save the day! Except this time it is very very different... Zelda is saving Link this time! Well no, that's just because I got mods...
Breath of the Wild's gameplay is the series shift into "open world" and for one of a handful of times ever I will say - they did it with brilliance. Other than the opening section on the "Great Plateau" which is the games' prologue to hand out your basic abilities + give you the gist of the story, the land of Hyrule is like 80% open to you from the word Go. There's a beautiful freedom to the game as you head from area to area, stopping by whatever oddity in the distance catches your eye and then investigating. Due to the expendable nature of everything you find (other than armor and ONE weapon) it makes everything you find have SOME value, up until the End Game when you're able to finally take on Ganon. And in fact you don't even have to do the four main quests to fight Ganon, you can head straight there if you want to! (I'm 99% certain someone has done it on Youtube) So this is the brilliance of the game - you have a clear objective: kill Ganon. Why are we fucking around in the open world? To get strong enough to beat Ganon. It's such a straightforward premise I'm strongly tempted to use it for a DnD game one day...
Breath of the Wild also has voice acting for the first time, and also tries its best to show its work for characters and their success is... mixed? Each of the four previous Champions for each race are pretty cool for what little we see them, but the "replacements" of each race we work with are pretty hit or miss. Prince Sidon is a frickin' badass, where the Rito warrior is... who again?? Don't get me started on the fucking Goron... The characters that are in the modern day are fine enough though they get very little to do. They're quirky enough however to be at least somewhat memorable so nice going BOTW! It is also trying to set up some beef with Zelda who is mad that she's treated like a delicate little flower all of the time (oooo shit we calling out past games?!) but the story does not really follow up on this too closely.
So while the story and characters are mostly... passable, this game is genuinely wonderful. The combat, while relatively straightforward, has a frantic kineticism to it due to the shifting environments + your constantly shifting arsenal. Enemy diversity is GARBAGE but fighting the later enemies is damn satisfying to pull off once you've leveled up and come back to kick their asses (always a great feeling in a game). Getting to go over just that one more hill and seeing a weird formation of trees or rocks in the distance and going "Oooh what's that over there?!" and 9/10 you're going to be rewarded tangibly for your curiousity is just... damn. Feels great!
Breath of the Wild's gameplay is the series shift into "open world" and for one of a handful of times ever I will say - they did it with brilliance. Other than the opening section on the "Great Plateau" which is the games' prologue to hand out your basic abilities + give you the gist of the story, the land of Hyrule is like 80% open to you from the word Go. There's a beautiful freedom to the game as you head from area to area, stopping by whatever oddity in the distance catches your eye and then investigating. Due to the expendable nature of everything you find (other than armor and ONE weapon) it makes everything you find have SOME value, up until the End Game when you're able to finally take on Ganon. And in fact you don't even have to do the four main quests to fight Ganon, you can head straight there if you want to! (I'm 99% certain someone has done it on Youtube) So this is the brilliance of the game - you have a clear objective: kill Ganon. Why are we fucking around in the open world? To get strong enough to beat Ganon. It's such a straightforward premise I'm strongly tempted to use it for a DnD game one day...
Breath of the Wild also has voice acting for the first time, and also tries its best to show its work for characters and their success is... mixed? Each of the four previous Champions for each race are pretty cool for what little we see them, but the "replacements" of each race we work with are pretty hit or miss. Prince Sidon is a frickin' badass, where the Rito warrior is... who again?? Don't get me started on the fucking Goron... The characters that are in the modern day are fine enough though they get very little to do. They're quirky enough however to be at least somewhat memorable so nice going BOTW! It is also trying to set up some beef with Zelda who is mad that she's treated like a delicate little flower all of the time (oooo shit we calling out past games?!) but the story does not really follow up on this too closely.
So while the story and characters are mostly... passable, this game is genuinely wonderful. The combat, while relatively straightforward, has a frantic kineticism to it due to the shifting environments + your constantly shifting arsenal. Enemy diversity is GARBAGE but fighting the later enemies is damn satisfying to pull off once you've leveled up and come back to kick their asses (always a great feeling in a game). Getting to go over just that one more hill and seeing a weird formation of trees or rocks in the distance and going "Oooh what's that over there?!" and 9/10 you're going to be rewarded tangibly for your curiousity is just... damn. Feels great!