Hey hey,
Hope you are well!
It’s ramping up to be one of Those Months (when is it ever not lol)!! I took the last bit a little easier, did a bunch of first looks cause I didn’t want to commit to big stuff before RE4, which inevitably led me to the “now I know this game is good & I wanna continue but I feel this way about 50 games simultaneously” pipeline and I’m just 🥲...
well I will leave all that for FutureWelonz to think about…!!
TL;DR
- Finished: Hi-Fi RUSH
- Ongoing: Dragon Age 2
- Upcoming: Resident Evil 4 Remake
Finished Since Last Update
Hi-Fi RUSH (9 longer parts): A music action game where we murderize the bad guys… on beat!
Normally music & rhythm games are pretty out of my wheelhouse, but the comedy and on-point banter + voice acting kept me coming back for more. It’s just pure, unadulterated fun. As much as I want you to watch the videos & all I think this is definitely one to pick up for yourself! It’s super accessible to players of any level of music experience/rhythm skill.
We had first looks of:
Returnal: A roguelite with what seems to be a compelling mystery of a woman being brought back time and time again to an eerie foreign planet. I initially skipped out on this since I didn’t get a PS5 at launch but the PC version seems quite polished in all aspects. I’m reaaally tempted to continue this - I think the only thing stopping me is the unpredictable-ish, skill level-dependent amount of playtime hours tbh.
A Space for the Unbound: A point & click pixel adventure set in the rural Indonesia in the late 90s about a pair of high school sweethearts just about to graduate. There are some magical shenanigans going on although it’s not entirely clearly what just yet!
This is more of a personal aside but I really enjoy checking out games about/created by people from cultures not usually featured in popular mainstream titles. Seeing Indonesian viewers get excited about this must be like how I feel about games set in Hong Kong hahaha. It’s really great to see gamedev-ing get more and more global too!
Road 96: Mile 0: Prequel to Road 96 which I did a first look on before: a choose-your-own-adventure laced with bizarre/hilarious minigames and music levels, all set against a backdrop an oppressed nation. Cool vibes just like Road 96, although unfortunately I ran into unexpected copyright problems with the music in this one, making continuing extremely difficult ☹
TCHIA Full Release: We checked out the preview a few months ago so this time I focused on the story that gave context on how Tchia’s journey started. Still as wholesome and cute as ever, although I think honing in on story bits doesn’t show off the exploration freedom as well as in the preview video.
I feel like this is a great one for general chilling & relaxation which would be a great contrast to the Serious Games on the channel. Would like to continue but it’s getting Busy and I don’t want this cute game to feel like a chore – I’ll look more into if this is possible… 🥺(Their PR team also sent me a whole ass ukulele which definitely is Not influencing my decision, I definitely haven’t been completely obsessed with it for the past few days 🗿 🗿 🗿)
(We also looked at the RE4 Remake Demo, which we’ll play in full very soon!)
Progress on Current Stuff
Dragon Age 2: We’re squarely in Act 2 of 3 now! There are some seams and cracks that wear on me now that I’ve been playing for a bit (no more endless waves of enemy mobs pls) but I think overall there’s still much to enjoy in the characters & story.
Storyteller: A puzzle game involving placing scenes & characters to create your own stories. Published by Annapurna so you know I couldn’t resist lol. It’s super cute and sometimes unintentionally hilarious – all the shifting stuff around reminds me a tad of Gorogoa (also from Annapurna). This’ll be a short 3-part series!
Upcoming Stuff
As mentioned before, my next big thing should be Resident Evil 4 Remake!
I haven’t uploaded it yet but I’ve also tried a few hours of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order – been enjoying it despite knowing not much of SW in general. (I’ve seen 8 of 9 movies actually, but it was long ago & I watched kinda passively so I forgot most things lol.) I’d like to start/continue this as a series, but timing-wise it’s difficult – I didn’t want to start it before RE4 and end up with too much on my plate, then if I do manage to fit the whole thing in before the sequel coming out on Apr 28 I’ll also be away for 2 weeks in May. Not to mention the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores DLC comes out on Apr 19 as well…!
I’m not sure how to make this work – atm thinking it’s best to focus on RE4 first and see where that leaves me in terms of dates & timings.
Whew, writing all this out puts into perspective how crazy game release schedules can be. I’m sure there’s even more cool & exciting stuff I missed somewhere too… feel free to let me know any thoughts/questions you have in the comments! Otherwise, I’ll see you in the (new video games) trenches 🫡
Welonz