Hi, hope you are well!
Where does the time fly? It’s almost the end of the year already, yet I feel like I got nothing done 🥲 I’ve got a bit of a long one today so let’s goo!
TL;DR
- Finished: A Plague Tale: Requiem
- Ongoing: Dragon Age: Origins, God of War: Ragnarok
- Upcoming: above continuing, hopefully some indies, idk man, Stuff 😭
Finished Since Last Update
A Plague Tale: Requiem (22 parts): Some performance issues (stuttering) aside, I think anyone who enjoyed Innocence will reasonably enjoy Requiem as well – it’s the same gameplay loop + a continuation of Amicia and Hugo’s story. This is a difficult one to say too much about without spoilers 🤡 but the facial mocap they did for Requiem is great and the actors’ performances really sold the tale.
I did a whole bunch of first looks this time:
The Entropy Centre: A Portal-like of a test subject trapped inside a facility where they must solve puzzles to save the earth (?) The story in the first hour I think draws far too much off Portal, but the puzzle mechanics are solidly unique and were fun brain teasers.
New Tales from the Borderlands: Review scores on the first day didn’t look mega bad but oh boy, after playing myself I think this is a tough sell. This series heavily relies on comedy but this new one just didn’t seem to have all the right ingredients for the humour to hit. There were things that I liked about it (animation is good), but in a busy release period with so many other choices, it’s tough to give it more of a chance.
SIGNALIS: A 2D survival horror game drawing on Silent Hill and Resident Evil for inspiration. Even just from the first hour it is very polished & I am seriously impressed by what I saw already. The only reason I haven’t continued it is really just a time issue (also b/c I’m scared but that’s irrelevant l o l) – I will def go back to this!!!
Deliver Us Mars: Some of you might remember I played an indie game called Deliver Us The Moon a few years back – it had a solid story I really enjoyed, and Mars is the upcoming sequel!
This is a more edited & shortened video not in a style I usually do because I got to try it out as part of an event. I want to share a bit more on this experience since I’ve never done anything like it - it’s kinda long so I moved it to the bottom of this post!
Progress on Current Stuff
Dragon Age: Origins: I am at the final portion of the base game now, but my understanding is I’ve still got a lengthy DLC campaign + people were interested in me checking out the various character origins which I think are about 1-2 hours each. I’m stilling enjoying DAO lots, but I also can’t wait to finish this and move my monitor back into its original spot LOL (I had to move it closer so I could actually read the text for ants 💀).
God of War: Ragnarok: It’s a well-polished AAA experience so far just like GOW 2018! I feel like I have some developing (mixed) thoughts on Sony seemingly perfecting a formula for their signature cinematic single-player games, but I want to get to the end first before I say more. Fingers crossed there aren’t any crazy Sigrun-level boss battles in late optional game, but somehow I doubt it lol.
Upcoming Stuff
I’m a little unhappy with the AAA overload/lack of indie so I really want to slot some in asap – SIGNALIS is an obvious candidate, as is stuff like IMMORTALITY (new Sam Barlow FMV game) and Burnhouse Lane (new game from The Cat Lady dev) which multiple people have brought up to me. Some of these are short enough that I’m considering slowly playing whenever I find time and only posting it when I’m done so I can ensure upload consistency. This’ll mean that I’ll be quiet until I’m 100% ready though, which might be a while more.
Other than that I imagine things will continue to coast as is. Hopefully Dragon Age will finish in time for stuff in December (The Callisto Protocol???? Crisis Core Reunion???? IDK there’s so much happening 😭😭)
Experience with Early Previewing A New Game
Usually when I get to check out a game early I'm given a game code to do it on my own time, but this time was different: it was a digital event where I had to book for a gameplay session with multiple people present. We remoted into separate game PCs, and hosting staff watched our progress over screensharing to help us out if we got stuck.
Because of multiple people in the same (digital) room & crossing conversations, time constraints, and the inherent input latency of controlling a game remotely, to be honest it was kind of difficult to check out a new game under these conditions!
I don’t think I have to clarify with you guys but I am definitely not shit-talking this event – it was a cool opportunity & I’m really grateful! But having had this experience I felt like I gained understanding of how videos of e.g. Journalists Sucking At Video Games Like It’s Their First Time Ever Playing One come about. Especially at big physical trade shows like E3, I can imagine people running on fumes trying dozens of games, all compounded by a billion external distractions. It’s tough work.
Anyway, just wanted to share a bit of my experience. I don't think I said anything I'm not supposed to (confidentiality-wise), but just in case it would be awesome if you could refrain from sharing what I mentioned here in more public spaces.
In other news: so sorry the Q&A still isn’t out yet – I’m doing the thing where I’m working on literally everything else besides it again 💀..... I am aiming for end of year at the latest....!!
Hope you are enjoying your upcoming winter (holi)days! As always, feel free to share any thoughts/suggestions/comments below, and I’ll catch you again next month!
Welonz