Well, with the recent news I at least won't be conflicted on whether or not to buy a potential Crash 5 because it's never going to be made. Every developer Activision has under their belt is just working on this now. Also, the men who put their colleagues through absolutely vile and horrendous shit can just fuck off and die. I don't know what it is about grown adult men that act like they're still in high school, it's so disturbing. Disgusting that this happened at all and will no doubt continue to happen because it'll just get buried, and all the Call of Duty YouTube channels will ignore it instead of doing literally anything because they've built their entire career/brand around one franchise. Special fuck off to Bobby Kotick, a man I do not and never will know, but by all accounts is everything wrong with the world today and if I can ensure that not a single dollar more is given to someone who annually makes more than anyone would ever need in their or any of their ancestors' entire lives, I think I'm doing something right. Fuck Activision, essentially.

A really incredible showcase for the Dualsense (as they're calling it) controller, and its haptic feedback features. It is legitimately impressive when you first feel all the vibrations and I really do not understand the technology behind it. I thought it'd be far too strenuous having to really yank on the triggers, but it felt great, aside from me worrying I'd break the things because I am probably not aware of my own strength which I can only assume is just overwhelming. My hands also felt a bit numb after the fact, but my fingers feel very nimble and easy to maneuverer, which is a rarity for me; it really gets the blood going, in that sense.

Strangely though, it still feels like just a technical showcase. The game on its own is a lot of fun, but wouldn't stack up to a competitor such as Crash Bandicoot. Obviously not a fair comparison and since it's a free game pre-installed that you can actually delete this time, I really can't complain. But I get the feeling that this haptic feedback thing won't have the greatest longevity or just won't be utilized in a very interesting way, despite it being a genuine "next-gen" feature that is a bit of a game-changer. I guess it makes sense that a game built entirely to show it off will probably remain the best example of it, but who am I to say. Good fun, I'm just whining.

I think I have a soft spot for Bloober Team. I was mostly a fan of their Blair Witch game, despite having not seen any of the films. There is a clear passion and commitment that I get from them, even if a lot of their execution can be sloppy or clumsy, they're giving it their all and I thought this was an improvement over that game in most ways, with the story and visual style being far more ambitious. But there is still a gnawing feeling of, I guess "cheapness", and those little hiccups that can massively detract from the experience at points, and also some bizarre puzzles that had me stumped. It can be kind of nice how unpolished and cheap it feels, as some games are just so over polished and concerned with graphics and all that, but when you're actually playing it can be a bit cumbersome, what a word I've pulled out there. They're trying, but they don't seem to be killing themselves to do it, I guess is what I'm saying. Most things media related usually end up being just pretty good or okay, where it can feel like it either has to be the best thing ever or an absolute sin, so it's kind of nice that this game is just pretty okay.

Though maybe my biggest takeaway from the game is that for some inexplicable reason, every time I played I started to fall asleep. Literally every time I started playing, without fail, I would begin to doze off and my eyes would get real heavy like, and I enjoyed the game almost all the way through, so it wasn't boredom. Maybe it's because I've moved to a more comfortable seating arrangement, or my general fatigue all throughout the day, but either way it was pretty odd and I can't recall that ever really happening with any game. Maybe the protagonist "shifting" between different realities made me feel like doing the same, or just having to focus on two different environments at once. Regardless, that was pretty crazy, oh yeah.

I also quite liked the protagonist Marianne and really liked her voice acting. I can't confirm, but I'm pretty sure it's Erin Yvette who also did Snow White in The Wolf Among Us. Man, that sequel looks damn good, not that I ever thought the game needed one, but I'll take it. Anyway, I just liked her reactions to things, she still made some unnecessary and poorly timed quips as is standard, but I thought for the most part she was a bit more natural and genuine than some protagonists. At least she can crack a joke or two, I suppose.

Anyway, this got long as always, but I was surprisingly impressed with the game. Nice one.

I have a complicated relationship with this game, or rather the base game. When I played it almost three years ago (how the fuck), I had a very mixed and conflicting experience with it. One day I'd get on and play for a few hours, loving every second of it. Then the next day, I'd hate every second. It was very bizarre and unique, as with most open world games there is a bit of a hurdle to get over and then it's just a smooth ride of gameplay loop. Yet, with Horizon Zero Dawn, I never really found that comfort point. Some of the issues I have with the game are seemingly small and nitpicky, but they all really combined to just get under my skin in a way not many other games have.

For starters, I fucking hate the camera so much. In most games, you'll have a fixed camera with the player on the left or the center of the screen; here, it's fluid, meaning that it can change and just go anywhere at any time. That sounds kind of neat, but in execution it's one of the most frustrating and distracting features of any game I've ever played. The only way to "fix" it is to aim or use your focus, which only interrupts you for a few seconds, but it's just not needed. To be fair, I recall Alan Wake having a similar way of angling the camera, but I guess it didn't bother me so much in that game because the FOV was far superior and it wouldn't just move on its own while you're playing, from memory. Whoever thought it was a good idea to shrink the FOV when you're inside a building or a camp has some explaining to do. Also, the waypoint marker is awful, though that isn't unique to just this game. And jumping is also very lackluster, but mainly that camera thing.

Despite those issues that did mostly persist, and some very questionable mission design that had me stumped, I would say I enjoyed this more than the base game. Not to say that it's great, especially since most of the fun I had here was actually with the side missions and collectables of the base game, so I guess I just didn't really enjoy the main quest. Not surprising, as I feel open-world games aren't really known for their great stories, especially ones that rely on urgency but also give you the freedom to fuck off for 200 hours to play a card game. Traversing this world is just very boring and it has the all-too-common issue of being too damn big, for me at least. But even with those caveats, I was able to have fun and I can't really explain why. Something just clicked and when I was left to my own devices, I enjoyed it. And I guess that's the beauty of the open-world game, the freedom and ability to do it your way, or at the very least the illusion to do it your way since it's a game made by people and everything you can do was already thought up and programmed by them, but they don't want you to know that.

So overall, it's fine. I'm sure I'd enjoy the main campaign on a second playthrough, but I can't say I will get around to that any time soon; it's also possible that because I played this game at a tumultuous moment in my life, some of those external feelings and my general mood leaked its way into my time with the game.. or maybe it's just wank. There's just something very off-putting about this game that I can't quite put into words. As NerdCubed once said, "It's a game that does everything very well, but does absolutely nothing new so I don't care about it," or something to that effect, what does it matter. It excels in areas that I suppose I just don't really care about. The game overwhelms me with a plethora of options and weapons and different modifications for those weapons and I just simply can't be arsed most of the time. Idk.

The last time I played Minecraft was in 2018, and it involved me battling a friend at the time in a spoof of the KSI / Logan Paul boxing fight. There was even an undercard, which my side won, giving me a great advantage going into my own fight.

Predictably, I destroyed him. The final score was 6-1, with him only winning the initial round by knocking me off the castle he ran to at the beginning of every single round. He had a strategy and I can respect that, not that it helped him after that first round. My years of playing had finally paid off and I had achieved a great victory, an almost complete domination.

Unfortunately, I was lured into a trap. The defeated participant convinced me to keep the true result a secret, telling people it was a draw to further emulate the boxing fight we were parodying. We told our acquaintances that both of us had won a single round, but that the server disconnected and we couldn't resume.

The conclusion of our deception would lead to a "rematch", in which we would fool them all and reveal the rematch to be the original match all along. It never came to fruition, and I would haphazardly reveal the lie to almost no fanfare about six months later.

And thus ends the tale. I am yet to receive the adoration and appreciation of my peers. I am yet to feel the jubilation and elation of vanquishing the fiend that deceived me. But the knowledge that I won, in a decisive manner no less, will fuel me until the end of my days.

Thank you for your time. Furthermore, I was portrayed as Logan in the promos leading to our fight. That sure aged well.

EDIT: I fucked up the mission 'Loose Ends' and didn't realize that by letting the DSM get destroyed, it counts as a fail state. THREE attempts at the mission later and I got the trophy. Fuck those mortars. I feel bad, so I'll remove the half star rating.

Lowest possible score for this playthrough. The 'Immortal' trophy is a buggy piece of shit. Guess I'm going to have to play it for a third time. It's not even too hard, it's just so fucking tedious because I've played this game like a hundred times already. Fuming.

Aside from some obtuse and convoluted puzzles, this is a pretty relaxing game. The solutions to those puzzles are usually just hidden in plain sight, but sometimes the solution is completely random; the entirety of chapter two is quite restrictive and specific, and often times the actual solution is just physically impossible to see unless you are scanning every inch of the screen with your mouse.

There are some poor twists and contrived moments which feel very sudden, and some of the voice acting lacks conviction when it really needed some; the final boss battle especially suffers because of that. Things can also feel a bit lifeless at times which doesn't help. At one point I ended up in a suit of armour, as one does, and none of the characters commented on how strange that was. Maybe that isn't unusual around here, who knows, but it feels like a bit of an oversight when at another point where your physical appearance is somewhat altered, people do take notice of it.

For me the highlight was the town of Trüberbrook, a quaint and weird little place. It's nothing wholly unique, but it is a fun setting and has a lot of charm which carried me through the game.

You will be spending most of your time walking around, finding things and then mashing those things together to make a new thing. It is strangely in these more quiet and seemingly dull moments where the game shined for me, it's immensely satisfying when you figure out what to do. Though I suppose some of that satisfaction is only brought about because of how bizarre some solutions are, so it's a bit ass-backwards. Overall occassionally frustrating, but otherwise a good time and as I said, fairly relaxing.

This is a really fantastic game, it's absolutely stunning and immediately captivating and emotional in a way that most games never come close to being; but much like the first one, I find it oddly stressful in a way I can't explain. Much more than the first one, I also found myself getting very easily frustrated with the barrage of enemies that will get in your way, and the occasional moments where you get stuck and then realize it was all your fault for not doing it right.

As I said, this is clearly an amazing game in basically every regard, but I just don't think I can keep going with it at the current time. I feel like I have to justify my reason for giving up on the game because I, despite finding it stressful, did really love the first game and I'd arguably never played a game with such fluid movement and remarkable environmental designs. This game is essentially more of the same, but something about that movement just didn't feel right to me and I suppose I'm not fully in the best mood for a game that demands you explore every nook and cranny, as I did 100% the first game. And due to the Xbox Game Pass subscription I have running out soon, I was probably subconsciously rushing my time with this so I could play some other things. I've also just got a lot of things on mind at the moment, and this children's game was too much for me to mentally handle. Love to see it.