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As soon as I turned in grades for the semester I fired up Dead Space 2. As I stated in a previous post, I played Dead Space: Ignition and it is the lead-up to Dead Space 2. The guy who wakes you up is the protagonist of Ignition and honestly... he's a bit of a dick. So the way ignition works is that you can take multiple paths to your ultimate goal of waking Isaac up. In every scenario, your companion and supposedly serious girlfriend dies. HOW she dies changes though, but only ONE scenario shows it as out of the protagonists control. Some authority doesn't unlock a door or something causing her to get eaten by the infected. Very upset and very angry you tell whoever this authority is they've just made a big mistake and leads us to believe he wakes Isaac up out of revenge. In ALL other scenarios you either purposefully leave her behind or flat out murder her, all in the service of some not clear higher purpose.

That being said, DS2 wastes NO time in getting you into the action. The dude from Ignition wakes you up from stasis and before he can get you out of a straight jacket and explain things to you he is killed by one of the monsters. I felt no pity, fuck him (see above). Isaac though, has to RUN. They really cranked up the action aspect to 11 and I love it. The game is more fluid with no loading screens in between levels like in the first one's transit system. the only cue you get is the subtle appearance of the chapter number on the bottom right of the screen. Not realizing this I made it all the way to chapter 5 in what felt like seconds. In the first DS each chapter took me a while, making sure I explored everything, collected audios and other crap and looking around every corner for necromorphs. This being more of the same enemy-wise is, I think, the main reason why I feel I'm breezing through it. I felt proud of myself, because I can still remember playing the first HALO game over a decade ago with a friend of mine and he had to babysit me the whole game. Now I'm flying through all sorts of FPS and third-person action shooters like a pro. LOL. Not sure how much more I got to go, but I stopped at chapter 7.

I LOVE everything about this game. The world design is unreal, after the claustrophobic atmosphere of the first one, traversing the space station on Titan is really cool. In a way it is MORE unsettling than the first, because here I had to shoot necro kids and necro babies in schools and nurseries.... not cool game, but at the same time pretty cool. The only thing I'm kinda struggling with is giving Isaac a voice and a face. I like it and at the same time I don't, not a big complaint though. I'll likely finish it in the next two days and then it's a matter of flipping a coin between the Long Dark and The Witcher III. I'll probably go for the Witcher as I want to make sure I have the time to finish it before school starts up again.
 
Metroid 5 "Dread" has been announced and some gameplay footage shown. It looks quite OK. Up front, I'm not a fan of a quite some features I've seen in there. Still I bought a Switch yesterday. I don't know what I'm going to do with it until September.

Get another set of controllers, gather your favourite twice vaccinated friends and play Ulimate Chicken Horse.

Yes, not exclusive to the Switch but so good.
 
Having finished Outer Wilds now, I’d say this is a must-play game if you like any kind of old school adventure game and you don’t completely loathe zero-G maneuvering and first-person platforming. It goes all 2001 toward the end, but what a nutty, memorable experience this is. No combat — it’s all exploration and traversal and learning the sometimes bizarre systems of the game. Excellent stuff.
 
Having finished Outer Wilds now, I’d say this is a must-play game if you like any kind of old school adventure game and you don’t completely loathe zero-G maneuvering and first-person platforming. It goes all 2001 toward the end, but what a nutty, memorable experience this is. No combat — it’s all exploration and traversal and learning the sometimes bizarre systems of the game. Excellent stuff.
It's on my radar for sure. What I like is that it seems to be one of those games that you don't HAVE TO finish if you don't want to. The aimless exploration is fun on it's own.
 
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As soon as I turned in grades for the semester I fired up Dead Space 2. […] I LOVE everything about this game.
You might find this 10-year old article on the design of the game interesting:

(I didn’t check if it has any spoilers, so be wary…)
 
You might find this 10-year old article on the design of the game interesting:

(I didn’t check if it has any spoilers, so be wary…)

Yup, that interview details the changes from DS 1 and DS 2. I think the quote that they went form Alien to Aliens is fairly accurate. Anywho, I just finished it about an hour ago. Took me about 13 hours according to my save data. I feel I could've been done in about 11, but I did get stuck in a couple of chase sequences. Amazing game. Scary, fun, going back to the article, definitely a rollercoaster ride. I'm actually considering getting DS 3 despite the negative backlash/reviews. Feel like making my own mind about it if I can get it at a good discount like I did with this one. Currently installing the Witcher III, that monster is next! I'll dabble with The Long Dark to take a break from it so we'll see how that goes.
 
I'm actually considering getting DS 3 despite the negative backlash/reviews. Feel like making my own mind about it if I can get it at a good discount like I did with this one.
DS3 is a noticeable step down from DS2, and it’s a different feeling game due to the co-op and action focus over horror, but it’s still worth playing if you enjoyed the first two.
 
So I'm a few hours into The Witcher III and I'm having problems putting it down. It's like a Bathesda game on steroids! HUGE open world with like A MILLION sidequests both marked AND unmarked. I've also been on an emotional rollercoaster from some of these quests. The bloody Baron? HO-LY SHIT. I stared at the screen wide-eyed and open--mouthed for what seemed like forever. The haunted tower on Fyke Isles was another downer of a quest.

Another reason I am really enjoying this game is Geralt, I Identify with him 100%. Not that I can go slay monsters LOL, but his personality, fucking grumpy grandpa down to a T. He huffs, puffs, grunts and begrudgingly agrees to quests. So even though He's not a first person POV silent protagonist, I still feel I'M Geralt. I feel they're MY decisions, not Geralt's, when I choose to take or refuse pay for a contract. I've turned down quite a few, because I feel sorry for the NPCs.

I failed a couple of quests for pure BS, though. In the middle of the contract my silver sword became damaged to the point of not being functional and I was outnumbered and overpowered. I kept dying. I had saved the game at the edge of the quest perimeter. I eventually gave up and decided to just walk away from that quest and do it later. To my surprise, when I did come back, everyone was dead and I failed the quest. The guy that gave it to me renigged on his deal, because, even though I killed the monsters, the humans had died. Lesson learned. Don't save the game so close to a quest/contract AND don't attempt a quest/contract unless you meet or are close to the recommended level.

In short this game is right up my alley. Great story, fun gameplay, TONS of interesting things to do with a lot of exploration. Perfect summer game in which I can get lost for hours. I know I said I'd play The Long Dark to take breaks from this one, but so far I don't see that happening any time soon. Now, on to find some witches in the bog!
 
In short this game is right up my alley. Great story, fun gameplay, TONS of interesting things to do with a lot of exploration. Perfect summer game in which I can get lost for hours.
Yep, see you in 140 gaming hours or so. I don’t think I played anything else until I finished the entire thing, DLC and all. Fantastic game.
 
About week or so into Witcher III. Have only failed one other side quest, so doing better in managing my Quest list.

What initially was one of my least favorite features of the game, Gwent, is now the dragon that I chase lol. I'm still bitter over missing my opportunity to get a card from the Bloody Baron, but aside from that, I've gotten good enough to beat people on the first game and on occasion, two rounds in a row.

I'm currently at level 22 and I like that I still have to be careful. I don't have a Fallout 3 issue where I'm a god at this point. Sure, most of the side quests and contracts I can handle easily and if I'm careful I can take down enemies 5 levels higher. But I just bumped into a Cyclops in Skellege who I just ran past, because MFker was like level 34. I struck him like 5 times and didn't even make a dent. I've fallen into a rythm as far as tackling side quests, contracts, treasure hunts and main quests. I no longer stress over having had made the "right" decision. The more I play this game the more I see myself replaying it, as massive as it is, it doesn't feel like a chore. So I've gotten rid of "back up saves," and only make a mental note of WHEN I play it again I'll just make a different decision. For example, just bumped into a minor quest where a herbalist cursed a guy, because they lived together for 10 years and left her for another woman, got married, had a kid. So she cursed the kid and he's dying. My choices were let the curse run it's course or deflect it back on the woman. Neither choice is to my liking. This time around I chose to kill the woman by deflecting the curse back to her knowing full well I will leave an entire town without their medicine woman and they may die from like... COVID or some shit. BUT I'm not about to let a kid die. Next play through I'll do the opposite. The most recent highlight was my little 'shroom trip in the Cave of Dreams where I confronted my deepest fear a la The Empire Strikes back tree. Very cool moment and I actually liked that it's a side quest rather than a main quest.
 
Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and the expansion Athena Sword (2003) on Steam.

Brilliant still. Maybe a bit dated AI but otherwise 100% great still.
 
So, I THINK I'm done with the base game in Witcher III. I say that because I did the big showdown at Kaer Morhen after doing a Blues Brothers/Avengers of putting the band back together, yet it seemlessly went into the next mission of taking the fight to the Wild Hunt and I killed one nasty big dude at the summit of Bald Mountain and killed two of the three crones with Ciri. This got me thinking. On this playthrough I decided to kill the evil spirit trapped in the tree, yet while at bald mountain I picked up some literature that said that the spirit in there was one of the ladies of the woods. I wonder, had I freed it would the fight gone differently...

Also, Geralt mentioned something practically off-hand which I found very intriguing. He said he recognized one of the men with Eredin from HIS time riding with the Wild Hunt. Wait... WHAT!? When/how did that even happen? One of the things I like about the game is that, while it is a direct sequel, you didn't have to play Witchers 1 and 2 to know what goes on in this one. But a surprise like this does make me feel like i missed something somewhere.

I also got a bit of anxiety, because I originally wanted to do all possible side quest, treasure hunts and witcher contracts, before finishing the base game. That included clearing the map of all question marks and there were several caves, guarded treasures and monster nests/dens in which I confronted monsters way stronger than me. So I was greatly bothered seeing a great portion of the map, both in Novigrad/Velen and Skellige, unexplored. However I am now level 31 (I entered the Isle of Mist at 26) I'm confident in being able to clear most of the maps now.

On an amusing note, a couple of days ago my GF asked me, "So, how long is this game?" "From what I've been told about 140 hours on average, why?" "Well, because you've been at it every day almost all day for a while now (about a month) and you're still not done." "Here, check this out," I said as I showed her the map with all it's question marks, the list of side quests, contracts and completed quests. "Now," I continued, "I don't HAVE TO do it all, but I want to. When I play it a second time I'll know what is worth persuing and what is best to ignore." All she said was, "Hmm, I'm going upstairs." She normally likes watching me play, but she HATES RPGs, she said, "OMG they're STILL talking!? Is that all they do?" "Um, hun, it's important plot what's going on right now." "It's f'ing boring." So, don't know when she'll join me again lol.
 
So, Ghosts n’ Goblins: Resurrection. I’m a fan from the beginning — I played the crap out of Ghosts n’ Goblins at the Fuddrucker’s down the street as a kid, and I played the crap out of Ghouls n’ Ghosts on the Sega Genesis. I’m no stranger to high-difficulty games — I was hardcore on Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, etc. I don’t need to “git gud”, I’m theoretically already there.

And yet, on the default “Legend” difficulty on GnG:R, I can’t get past the first fucking level. WTF. I’ve tried for hours and hours. I’ve tried different weapons and strategies to no avail. At this point I’m thinking that it’s due to the constant randomization of a large number of enemy positions in this game, when it was mostly static in previous games and could be learned.

I don’t want to turn down the difficulty. I am in fact exactly the target audience for this game, and I should have the muscle memory to go toe to toe with it, so WTF? At the same time, if I spend 10 hours getting no further than halfway through the first level, I’m feeling like compromise might be necessary to get any real enjoyment out of the game. Oh well.
 
So there's going to be a Dead Space remake/remaster coming. I'm somewhere between hyped and indifferent, I only played Dead Space 1 + 2 for the first time at the end of last year/start of this year and I thought they both still held up really well, I'm not sure how much of an improvement they could offer.
 
So there's going to be a Dead Space remake/remaster coming. I'm somewhere between hyped and indifferent, I only played Dead Space 1 + 2 for the first time at the end of last year/start of this year and I thought they both still held up really well, I'm not sure how much of an improvement they could offer.
So much for Dead Space 4. guess they're going for a remake. I was excited as I also recently played 1 & 2. Let's see what comes of it. I no longer buy games/consoles upon release for a variety of reasons, so can't wait to see the initial reviews.
 
So much for Dead Space 4. guess they're going for a remake. I was excited as I also recently played 1 & 2. Let's see what comes of it. I no longer buy games/consoles upon release for a variety of reasons, so can't wait to see the initial reviews.

I wonder what this means for The Callisto Protocol, which was supposed to be a spiritual successor to Dead Space. I was quite interested in seeing more about that, but now I think the DS remaster will divert most people's attention from it.

I'll definitely keep an eye on the reviews and any future gameplay showcases, but I don't think this will be the game to make me switch to the new gen of consoles. It has reminded me that I need to do a New Game+ run of the first Dead Space. Need to get through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night first.
 
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