GhostofAnakin

I've actually gotten back in to Destiny 2. Played through the various expansions, plus re-played some of the old story campaigns since I'd forgotten what mostly happened. One minor issue: I don't like how you can't replay the old stories after you've done it. Sure, you have 3 characters and can technically just run through the story with one of your other characters, but I don't really like using anything other than my Warlock. I also have a love/hate relationship with the PvP portion of the game. Half the time, if I get on a roll, I like it. But the other half, when I get stuck on bad teams, I end up rage-quitting.

Last commentary on Death Stranding before I shelf the game for good: Like the story, hated the bulk of the game (endless walking, stupid BT encounters), and seemed to have the most fun just building zip lines.

The latest Tomb Raider games felt very much combat action-like to me. I actually gave up on the latest one for a bit because I wanted to do more tomb exploring and less bad guy shooting.

Treated myself to Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and the latest Metro game. Not sure which one I'll play first.

DLC "next year". I wonder if that means early in the spring of 2020 or well into Sept/Oct/Nov of 2020. I kind of hope sooner rather than later because I tend to lose interest in revisiting games I haven't played in the past 6 months just to play the new DLC for it. For instance, I still haven't played the DLC/expansion for Horizon Zero Dawn even though I loved the base game because it came out quite a while after I'd already beaten the game.

Oh. My. God. I'm finally finished Death Stranding and that was a chore. It's weird because the actual story was interesting. But every single thing in between -- from the ridiculous amount of time spent walking/driving to places, to the endlessly annoying BT encounters -- was just a pain. It's like Kojima wanted to tell a story, then just told the people working for him to add a bunch of random walking and item fetch quests to fill up time between the cutscenes. Loved Metal Gear Solid V (at least the portion before he apparently left) and was hoping for something similar to that. The story was close, though I still liked the GCSV one better, but the other stuff was not.

Glad to see Obsidian and the Outer Worlds getting some recognition. Can only mean good things moving forward for both the franchise and Obsidian in general.

The length of the game is what always scares me away from yet another run through. I've already played it twice through, and knowing how long it is and how much commitment I'd have to put into finishing it, it always makes me pause when I think about starting up a new game. Love the game. Probably one of my favorites of all time. But, as crazy as it sounds, the sheer size of the game makes me play it less than I would if it was about a third of its size.

Maybe it's just not my type of game, but I don't get the hype for Death Stranding. I'm well into my play through and for the most part, I feel like I'm pushing myself to play further because of my obsession with completing games I start. There are some interesting concepts and parts of the story are cool, but overall it's just ... lacking something. I also think part of that is it has way too many annoying features. Too much walking, too many of those BT areas that aren't actually difficult to tackle when you have that blood grenade but are otherwise just tedious to deal with, and the mountain regions ... my God, they made walking even worse with the snow and rocks added in just to annoy me further. It's probably around a 5 or 6 out of 10 right now for me. Good enough that I'll complain but push through, but not good enough that I can think of much to actually praise it for.

Gotta say, traversing the map in Death Stranding is such a chore. Especially when you have to go to places that have a lot of rocks/water and no clear obvious path to take. The quest carrying that one woman on my back on what seemed a trek across the entire map was beyond boring.

At one point I was getting a lot of "likes" from other players because of a road I finished. But for some reason, I'm not getting any likes any more. I'm wondering if someone dismantled my road and built their own, or if at some point you stop getting likes for a structure after so many.

I keep finishing roads that other people have started. I don't know if I've reached the point in the game where I can fabricate my own roads yet. I tried, but it doesn't seem to be an option (can build bridges, but not roads). I also don't like any of the guns to fight the BTs with. The only weapon I like is the grenade thing.

So I've just been going around collecting material to build roads and other structures in Death Stranding. Apparently I'm scratching my itch to play the Sims with this game.

I've reached the part in the story where there's a partial "fast travel" now, though it's still very limited. Plus I can fabricate my own bike now, though that also doesn't help much when so much of the terrain is rocks. The story parts of the game are interesting. And that's what keeps me pushing through. But the walking ... my God, Kojima must really love seeing gamers spend 80% of their time running through the landscape he created.

Couldn't find a way to take a different route. Getting from one way station to the next meant walking through that same area that triggers them automatically. In any case, I just found that kind of thing more boring than scary or intense. Instead of being all, "Oh crap! Gotta run!" it's more like, "Oh come on. Welp, here's me mashing the shake off button and walking through tar for the next few minutes". That, combined with the endless walking, makes it a very tedious game, IMO. The actual story parts are fine. But the walking with literally nothing to do (it's not like FO or whatever where there are enemies to kill or towns to pop in on along the way) from Point A to Point B, it's just kind of tedious.

I don't know who thought that having to deal with those BT's every other minute in Death Stranding was a good idea. They're not even scary or a threat to kill me. It's just a bunch of sequences of me mashing the "shake off" button between walking through tar. Rinse, repeat every time I pass through certain areas of the map. I don't really see the point. It's just annoying -- and it's already annoying having to walk everywhere for minutes at a time with no way to fast travel (that I've seen early in the game) -- and doesn't really add anything. It's kind of sapping me of the will to play the game because there's just so much of it.

I'm still lost as hell in Death Stranding. So far, I'm not sure how fun this is going to be for me. I'm literally just running over a barren map between cutscenes at the various settlements.

Does Death Stranding get better? So far, the game has me walking for minutes a time with nothing really happening, carrying a bunch of packages that causes me to constantly stumble, and running away from weird creatures I don't know how to avoid. So far, it's like Kojima heard all the complaints gamers had about fetch quests and decided he was going to create an entire game that's one big fetch quest.

Playing Death Stranding. Still utterly confused, but I'm not sure if that's just because I'm early in or because Kojima.

I'd rank it about the same. About an 8/10. I did play through a second time, however, mainly to see how siding with the other side would play out. I liked the companions well enough, but I thought some of them weren't really fleshed out much. Ellie disappointed me, mainly, with her "sidequest". If they add some DLC or expansion, I'll definitely go back to it. As is, however, I think my two play throughs are the most I'll ever play because of the shortcomings I feel it had (that I voiced elsewhere).

Started a game of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but just couldn't get into it. Which is weird because I liked the first two games of the trilogy. I think sometimes I have to be in a specific mood to play certain games, and right now I'm not in a Tomb Raider mood. But the completionist in me is itching because I started it and don't like leaving games unfinished.

That doesn't help me since I play most games on a PS4.

Better not be XBox exclusive.

Gave a "like" for this part. I felt as though the companion interactions were too soon to develop, not deep enough, and too quick to resolve. I don't want/need "romance" with the companions. But I do look forward to learning a lot about them and them being complex and not just complete their companion quests after a couple of "go here, do that" missions.

Haven't played Deadfire yet, so no clue why it struggled financially. Hopefully they're still going to make a PS4 version, as that's solely what I play games on these days.