goofeingoff
a couple hours in to endwalker, i became aware of the belief that nothing fundamentally is going to change here. an mmo is built to be endlessly playable for everyone online, zones persist, the world persists. the sun is under no real threat.
that thought kinda continued to grow as i went on, and with that my emotional engagement with the storyline wane. everything just felt so "safe", the despair never truly working its way into my chest. the more characters were killed only to be brought back five minutes later, the more i considered if these some two hundred hours were something i regret.
and i think my conclusion is, maybe. its clear a lot of heart went into this, and i did absolutely love certain parts of it (shadowbringers) and enjoy most of the characters, but i think i would have found more joy in a more condensed traditional jrpg length game with a game engine that did not make me feel like i was trying to connect to a server at the bottom of the pacific.
i would imagine there is a lot more to love in this game were you to really sink into the gameplay enough to get that urge to try to make a digital life in its world. i was never truly able to, and i think in the end, im left feeling mostly indifferent.
that thought kinda continued to grow as i went on, and with that my emotional engagement with the storyline wane. everything just felt so "safe", the despair never truly working its way into my chest. the more characters were killed only to be brought back five minutes later, the more i considered if these some two hundred hours were something i regret.
and i think my conclusion is, maybe. its clear a lot of heart went into this, and i did absolutely love certain parts of it (shadowbringers) and enjoy most of the characters, but i think i would have found more joy in a more condensed traditional jrpg length game with a game engine that did not make me feel like i was trying to connect to a server at the bottom of the pacific.
i would imagine there is a lot more to love in this game were you to really sink into the gameplay enough to get that urge to try to make a digital life in its world. i was never truly able to, and i think in the end, im left feeling mostly indifferent.
life at the edge of enormity with all of its sorrow and perseverance, like all of my favorite works of art. spent most of the game heavily nostalgic for christmas spent huddled around a broken radiator in my chicago one room studio apartment.
the most human game i think i've ever played, there was stuff relating to addiction in there that i've only heard discussed amongst those circling the bottom of the drain.
the most human game i think i've ever played, there was stuff relating to addiction in there that i've only heard discussed amongst those circling the bottom of the drain.
2015
one of those incredibly rare games where the lore and world is able to light a fire in your guts, to spark an obsession. add in the butter smooth gameplay and you have the best game of the generation, possibly one of the best games of all time.
2018
lost ark is like what if we took the minute to minute combat of diablo 3, cut about 75% of it and filled the rest up with fetch quests where you deliver like a basket of eggs to 5 townspeople, took the soulless and entirely embarrassing story and writing from d3 and decided this is actually too profound lets dumb it down somehow, then threw in a bunch of pay to win mechanics in for good measure.
its so aggressively mediocre that i cant help but assume the reason its so popular is amazon is running a covert ad campaign so powerful the likes of which have historically been reserved for when the cia is prepping to coup a small middle south american country, if only to keep the foreboding sense of doom i feel over the popularity of this game at bay.
there is little here to appreciate but a carefully crafted dopamine shotgun intended to leave the player bleeding from a dozen holes in the skull, with a conveniently placed cash shop with whatever you need to plug them. want to make this experience we have stretched out across hundreds of hours less painful? only 20$ per wound.
its so aggressively mediocre that i cant help but assume the reason its so popular is amazon is running a covert ad campaign so powerful the likes of which have historically been reserved for when the cia is prepping to coup a small middle south american country, if only to keep the foreboding sense of doom i feel over the popularity of this game at bay.
there is little here to appreciate but a carefully crafted dopamine shotgun intended to leave the player bleeding from a dozen holes in the skull, with a conveniently placed cash shop with whatever you need to plug them. want to make this experience we have stretched out across hundreds of hours less painful? only 20$ per wound.
2021
you spend hours frustrated, feeling helpless against these guys. eventually it clicks, and you spend a few more hours horrified as you single handedly murder completely defenseless animals. fucked up.
4/5 stars. also i know some people seem to hate it, but i love this bite sized version of world where you spend less time running around a huge map doing nothing and more time fighting monsters. the game basically cuts most of the pain points i had with world.
4/5 stars. also i know some people seem to hate it, but i love this bite sized version of world where you spend less time running around a huge map doing nothing and more time fighting monsters. the game basically cuts most of the pain points i had with world.
2021
yea story is whatever, dont really care. mostly don't care about the open world either, but its the best implementation of modern "ubisoft" open world i can think of. modest, existing more to try and compliment the freedom of the halo sandbox rather than specifically to add hours onto the runtime.
the second i finished it though, i started thinking about a legendary coop playthrough to focus on other abilities etc. the amount of versatility in how to approach engagements is just beautiful. and it feels so much more tangible to me than like, a bethesda fallout game.
i think this might be my favorite halo ever.
the second i finished it though, i started thinking about a legendary coop playthrough to focus on other abilities etc. the amount of versatility in how to approach engagements is just beautiful. and it feels so much more tangible to me than like, a bethesda fallout game.
i think this might be my favorite halo ever.
2023
why does someone only make a game about an opioid addict with two handguns once every decade?
doing a little prayer tonight every indie developer for being the only people willing to make a game that only does one or two things really well, god bless you. game kicks ass.
doing a little prayer tonight every indie developer for being the only people willing to make a game that only does one or two things really well, god bless you. game kicks ass.
2023
wett dog food, the game. a quarter baked slurry of half realized ideas bashed together into a can.
if this game wasn't made by bethesda, if it wasn't able to cash in on the bank of an entire generations warm sedative nostalgia of learning how to play skyrim, it would be an seen as an absolute failure of a game on every front besides "i made star wars airplane :)".
i would have loved to get a full retrospective of what went wrong in development here, became there is no way 90% of this game is intentional design. the 7/10 review scores though suggest we wont be seeing anything of the sort.
if this game wasn't made by bethesda, if it wasn't able to cash in on the bank of an entire generations warm sedative nostalgia of learning how to play skyrim, it would be an seen as an absolute failure of a game on every front besides "i made star wars airplane :)".
i would have loved to get a full retrospective of what went wrong in development here, became there is no way 90% of this game is intentional design. the 7/10 review scores though suggest we wont be seeing anything of the sort.
2022
YES! YES!!! DREAMCAST IS BACK BABY, LONG LIVE DREAMCAST!
i will devote my life to making a video game with the sole purpose of convincing machine girl to soundtrack it.
i will devote my life to making a video game with the sole purpose of convincing machine girl to soundtrack it.
update: upon playing the legendary campaign after the recommendation of everyone on earth, they got me. im sucked in. whoever designed the new void specs was on fire. the entire game should feel like the legendary campaign.
man you'd think a story about playing witcha worm would be a bit more engaging, but once again the campaign writing team doing as much as possible to tank the beautiful work the world design and lore teams are doing. i guess its an unenviable task though, writing a satisfying introduction and conclusion of a main villain who has been whispered about for nearing in on a decade now while also making clear the motivations of half a dozen factions and the rules of a brand new fantasy world entirely disconnected from our real world solar system when your actual timeframe for narration is only something like half an hour out of a six or seven hour campaign. i guess when you have a neverending story, eventually you have to get ram right through the mystery and wonder that made the world feel so intriguing. oh well, onward to bigger and better things, we've got pixar movie villains to kill.
I guess I will say, I’m not nearly as infatuated with their world design this go around as I have been with their last couple of expansions. The frequent small caves, thick smog covered swamps, and hedge mazes combined with areas smashed together by teleporters ends up leaving the world feeling disjointed and claustrophobic. Like old development picked up off the cutting room floor and bashed together. The major bright spot is the pyramid ship mission, but in this case the mission mostly takes place within the artistic framework of the previous expansion. Like all the most awe inspiring locations in destiny, I crawled through that ship, stopping to check every model, feeling my stomach drop creeping towards the edge of a great expanse with the spiritual vertigo upon the acute realization of scale. This is when destiny is firing on all cylinders, but unfortunately it’s just short lived in WQ. The throne world failed to provoke anything resembling that level of reaction in me. Interesting and technically gorgeous, but hollow when compared to my favorite destiny locations.
its fine though, i've made my peace with the fact that i'll probably always love and hate this game. that bungie will really let their people do some fairly interesting shit at the outliers while constraining the main engagements to the kind of shit that keeps the most people playing. i don't think its going to click with me this time though, which is good I think, when it comes to actually appreciating this game. The more you go through the same motions chasing levels and rare guns, the harder it is to really love the most wonderful parts of what this team has built. i finished the campaign, and having realized on day two that i'm already too late probably to be ready for the day one raid, i've already lost interest in the treadmill. seeing the crafting system play out as forcing you to use weapons you don't care about over and over really just puts me off, game already has far too much of fretting over not maximizing your game time for me. bounties were more than enough.
anwaysy, love you have a good time.
man you'd think a story about playing witcha worm would be a bit more engaging, but once again the campaign writing team doing as much as possible to tank the beautiful work the world design and lore teams are doing. i guess its an unenviable task though, writing a satisfying introduction and conclusion of a main villain who has been whispered about for nearing in on a decade now while also making clear the motivations of half a dozen factions and the rules of a brand new fantasy world entirely disconnected from our real world solar system when your actual timeframe for narration is only something like half an hour out of a six or seven hour campaign. i guess when you have a neverending story, eventually you have to get ram right through the mystery and wonder that made the world feel so intriguing. oh well, onward to bigger and better things, we've got pixar movie villains to kill.
I guess I will say, I’m not nearly as infatuated with their world design this go around as I have been with their last couple of expansions. The frequent small caves, thick smog covered swamps, and hedge mazes combined with areas smashed together by teleporters ends up leaving the world feeling disjointed and claustrophobic. Like old development picked up off the cutting room floor and bashed together. The major bright spot is the pyramid ship mission, but in this case the mission mostly takes place within the artistic framework of the previous expansion. Like all the most awe inspiring locations in destiny, I crawled through that ship, stopping to check every model, feeling my stomach drop creeping towards the edge of a great expanse with the spiritual vertigo upon the acute realization of scale. This is when destiny is firing on all cylinders, but unfortunately it’s just short lived in WQ. The throne world failed to provoke anything resembling that level of reaction in me. Interesting and technically gorgeous, but hollow when compared to my favorite destiny locations.
its fine though, i've made my peace with the fact that i'll probably always love and hate this game. that bungie will really let their people do some fairly interesting shit at the outliers while constraining the main engagements to the kind of shit that keeps the most people playing. i don't think its going to click with me this time though, which is good I think, when it comes to actually appreciating this game. The more you go through the same motions chasing levels and rare guns, the harder it is to really love the most wonderful parts of what this team has built. i finished the campaign, and having realized on day two that i'm already too late probably to be ready for the day one raid, i've already lost interest in the treadmill. seeing the crafting system play out as forcing you to use weapons you don't care about over and over really just puts me off, game already has far too much of fretting over not maximizing your game time for me. bounties were more than enough.
anwaysy, love you have a good time.
2011
you don't have to be afraid, my friend. i'm sure whatever comes next is going to be even more grand and beautiful than whatever we had here.
1996
that four stars is only my thoughts on the base campaign. it starts off fantastic, atmospherically oppressive, but jesus man i'm not sure i've ever played a more dramatic decline in the final act of a game.
the first 90% of it holds up beautifully, motion feels fantastic and the sound design is still some of the most impactful out of any game i've ever played. had to unplug my subwoofer because the grenade sounds were shaking the house even with the volume cranked down.
monster design is great, except the jellyfish guys. absolutely despised them, and not in a "man i'm having fun with how much i hate these guys" way. towards the end of the game, the spawns on the little spider guys could be pretty unfun when it doesn't really give you much to work with when trying to get out of LOS of the projectiles.
hated the map design of the last few missions. i get the goal, just being a descent into madness or whatever, but it just wasn't fun to me and felt much less thought through than the first 4 episodes. the final boss fight was complete dog shit too, like they ran out of time and threw something together in an hour.
the first 90% of it holds up beautifully, motion feels fantastic and the sound design is still some of the most impactful out of any game i've ever played. had to unplug my subwoofer because the grenade sounds were shaking the house even with the volume cranked down.
monster design is great, except the jellyfish guys. absolutely despised them, and not in a "man i'm having fun with how much i hate these guys" way. towards the end of the game, the spawns on the little spider guys could be pretty unfun when it doesn't really give you much to work with when trying to get out of LOS of the projectiles.
hated the map design of the last few missions. i get the goal, just being a descent into madness or whatever, but it just wasn't fun to me and felt much less thought through than the first 4 episodes. the final boss fight was complete dog shit too, like they ran out of time and threw something together in an hour.
2019
there are few videogames that manage to create a feeling of awe, to instill the true feelings of apprehension wonder and terror that come from exploring something unknown. this one does it. a masterpiece.
absolute mess of a poorly made cynical skinner box on top of one of the most fun shooting of all time and an incredibly fascinating universe/lore. the only high point of shadowkeep was probably garden of salvation, which was absolutely fantastic and one of the most fun experiences in gaming. pretty much everything else though left a sour taste in my mouth.
ive checked back in briefly for some of the seasons, and their habit of trying to string players along doing dozens and dozens of hours of basically the same exact content they have been doing for years just feels worse and worse the longer it goes on. theres also dozens of quality of life things that just seem to never be addressed.
it can just get incredibly frustrating trying to engage with this game for the amount of time the game asks you to. play it, get to the point where you can experience the raids once or twice, and bail.
ive checked back in briefly for some of the seasons, and their habit of trying to string players along doing dozens and dozens of hours of basically the same exact content they have been doing for years just feels worse and worse the longer it goes on. theres also dozens of quality of life things that just seem to never be addressed.
it can just get incredibly frustrating trying to engage with this game for the amount of time the game asks you to. play it, get to the point where you can experience the raids once or twice, and bail.
This was a test to see how much bullshit players are willing to put up with for a admittedly pretty lovely 10 hour story. Ending up spending 15-20 hours on the same exact story I just finished to unlock two 1 minute cutscenes and 1 hour long finale.
Anyways, I failed the test. Should have just watched the endings on youtube. I would imagine the busy work was an intentional aspect of the game, trying to deliver some level of exhaustion or frustration to the player in order to elevate the emotional moments with your friends, but jesus christ it was too much.
The main cast (Kaine, Weiss, and Emil, also the king) were all absolutely lovely. Great costume design, incredible voice acting, great dialogue. Combat was fine, but I definitely wouldn't call it enjoyable. Boss fights were all incredibly bland mechanically, didn't enjoy a single one until the new ending added in Replicant. Music was lovely, but I can tell only a couple of the tracks will stick with me like Automata did. The main village theme was incredibly beautiful.
If it wasn't for the absolutely brutal busy work, this would be a 4-4.5 in my head. This is the seed that would grow into one of my favorite games of all time (Automata), but by itself pales in comparison. I often found myself wondering what other video game auteur I would be willing to slog through this for, and I don't even have an answer for that. Probably nobody.
Anyways, I failed the test. Should have just watched the endings on youtube. I would imagine the busy work was an intentional aspect of the game, trying to deliver some level of exhaustion or frustration to the player in order to elevate the emotional moments with your friends, but jesus christ it was too much.
The main cast (Kaine, Weiss, and Emil, also the king) were all absolutely lovely. Great costume design, incredible voice acting, great dialogue. Combat was fine, but I definitely wouldn't call it enjoyable. Boss fights were all incredibly bland mechanically, didn't enjoy a single one until the new ending added in Replicant. Music was lovely, but I can tell only a couple of the tracks will stick with me like Automata did. The main village theme was incredibly beautiful.
If it wasn't for the absolutely brutal busy work, this would be a 4-4.5 in my head. This is the seed that would grow into one of my favorite games of all time (Automata), but by itself pales in comparison. I often found myself wondering what other video game auteur I would be willing to slog through this for, and I don't even have an answer for that. Probably nobody.