Played some, but it's been tough to get back into it. Going to soft-shelf it for the moment to actually give some time to the FFVII remake.

I won't claim that the old Assassin's Creed games have "good" movement or "good" combat. It's been too long for me to make a qualitative judgment. All I know is that this feels considerably worse than I remember of either of the other two AC models.

Every direct action has felt unbearably weightless since Origins, and I genuinely can't imagine someone liking the way these games play. It's floaty, inelegant, devoid of exciting kineticism. From Bayek on, every frame of animation in these characters is simply boring. That's an unnecessary exaggeration. The kills are alright.

Bayek's characterization and acting, Egypt itself, and the fact that it was so divergent all kept me invested to the point that I ended up having a great time with Origins. The series has lost more of my interest for each new game. As much as I liked Kassandra.

Basim is kinda bland, mostly in writing and direction. Baghdad is gorgeous, but since I don't like the movement, joyless to explore. And I do think the metered dance of old AC combat is preferable to this. I could see animation polish and general tuning make it more engaging, but as it is I think it feels terrible.

Really does look striking in places, though. The late title card drop overlooking Baghdad with a clear sky and HDR-infused bright sun is one of the more stunning scenes I've seen in video games lately. Only wish I wanted to play it.

As is often the case, a good double jump really does something to bring out the fun in a game. I was having a good time before they introduced it, but my experience went from "I'm tacitly enjoying this video game" to "okay, I do actually like it and I'm now vocalizing that".

Restarted more than resumed, really. Just 30 minutes in, the last time. Gotten a good chunk now, though, so looking like I'll keep playing.

It's doing some interesting things so far to keep me engaged beyond triggering some pale version of nostalgia.

It's a great game. The production is more impressive than Control, no question, but I think I was slightly more compelled by the actual events in Control's story. So I kind of come out of this having enjoyed both of them about the same.

The Final Draft thing is a little quirky. Not sure I'm quite on board with needing to replay the entire game to see the "true ending". But since I don't actually need to do that, I'll let it slide.

I know one thing. I'll play the next Remedy game.

maybe halfway. Remedy really have done excellent work here. curious how they're going to tie up all the ends on this one

also looking forward to coming back in five years and playing it at native resolution. DLSS is capable tech, but the amount of artifacts is still rough

Kinda alright? It's just compromised by a presentation that's... nothing. You could practically do anything given the source material, and I don't think they took much of a risk.

If I exclusively cared about gameplay, I'd probably have a decent time. But I like risks.

I always appreciate when someone is clearly executing on a specific idea. It's admirable.

I'm not always able to communicate with that idea, or maybe it's being conveyed in a language I understand. But that's alright. Not everything's for everyone.

This does next to nothing for me, in other words.

hope they figure out a shader pre-compilation process

Alright, ready to start this thing. It's honestly trivial in the grand scheme, and I'll be the first to admit that, but for a game that looks this incredible, I just couldn't stomach the atrocious LOD pop-in.

After confirming it wasn't some quirk with my setup, and was in fact universal - people apparently don't see it, lucky bastards - I found out FlawlessWidescreen has a memory patch that lets you increase the limit. Non-zero impact to performance, but at least geometry that's next to my feet isn't changing quality as I move. I still think it's a little surprising more people haven't flagged how aggressive the pop-in is. All 3D games have it to some extent, this case just seems unusually extreme.

Part of me really wishes this shit didn't bother me. But it's also kinda cool to be playing an even better-looking version of the game.

For posterity: https://flawlesswidescreen.org/ - Main software is old, but the game-specific plugins have been updated. Simple installation, just needs to run concurrent with the game.

I don't see any STALKER here at all. It's more or less an uncluttered path from HL2 to this. Not bad, just not especially compelling.

Yeah, not really having enough fun to keep playing.

People are understandably forgiving of indie games that position themselves as spiritual successors to games from a bygone era.

Because aside from the very basic aspects of moment to moment gameplay, this is all deeply uninspired. I don't think it's doing anything sufficiently better than FEAR. Which would be fine, but it's been 20 years. Without some kind of hook, it falls flat.

It's fine! I just want more than fine. Of course, I like first person shooting so much that I'm sure I'll end up finishing it regardless.

Wish they could've gotten some good writers for it. Not that FEAR was a bastion of storytelling, but they were trying something. This... isn't so much.