Wormerine

The exact tagline was:

Managed to beat all bosses in SIFU. I found 3rd and bosses to be massive difficulty spikes. Now trying to spare them, which proves more difficult than I expected - I am training to parry and deflect more, which I think will be good for my kung-fu. I really like the combat system, though I don’t think bosses work as well as mobs. They seem to be more of a test of particular gameplay system, than interesting challenge in themselves.

SIFU So far so good. Stylish as heck, and combat seems promising. It seems far more conventional than Absolver, in which attack chain customisation and stance switching made my brain melt. SIFU at least so far, is more standard light/hard block/parry/dodge thing, mixed with DMC style special attacks and combos, sekiro style posture and brawler style pickabale weapons. Just an hour in, so the game allows me to spam my way through most enemies. Cool stuff.

Played a bit of Diablo 4. Seems alright. Always online would make my eye roll, if I didn't expect it from Blizz at this point. It doesn't help though, that I am constantly reminded of it with frequest lag as I assume the game tries to connect to a new region. Also, I don't think I have seen an atmosphere in the game dissolve as quickly as in D4 when after pretty decent opening I started game proper, and bunch of player avatars spawned at the same time around me. Started with Druid and had a decent time as a Werebear. Decided to give Sorcerer a short go, and it turned out Druid is kinda crap. Iceshield made my sorcerer pretty much involnourable, while recovering Mana, and incinerate melted everything in my path. Ended up running into Butcher, which seems to be some kind of hunter boss - he just popped up in one of the dungeons and completely obliterated me. Dissapeared afterwards, so it seems like a more one-off event. I had my fill of clicking until things die, but outside connection issues, it seems solid.

I just hope it won't end up being another Empire of Sin.

Finished Wo Long. Yeah, it's fine. Level design and story are poor, and combat is decent but could be better. There are some interesting systems at play with kind of Sekiro like posture bar, that also acts as mana for skills and spells - I really struggled to find use for those, and spending mana on emporing heavy attack just seemed infinitely more effective. Combat revolves around blocking enemy attacks, especially charged, red super attacks - unlike Sekiro those are parried exactly the same as normal attacks, so due to long windup and clear telegraphing those are more desirable than regular attacks - any more challenging encounters came down for me to figuring out what player behaviour is more likely to trigger enemy heavy attacks. There is also notacable lack of enemy variety. That is also amplified by simplicity of counter mechanic, that results in enemies feeling kinda the same to fight, no matter their apperance. The game has odd difficulty spikes, but for the most part the game is easy. Definitely the easiest souls-like I played.

A fairly positive preview for Redfall, and even better they might be lifting always online requirement and no store or microtransactions. I am still scepting if multiplayer game will be able to support depth of the usual Arcane offering, and disappointing Deathloop has greatly reduced my expecations. Still, I am all for any good news regarding Arcane. An update on Jake Solomon. He is looking to open a new studio and work on some system driven "life simulator". He seems to be done with turn based strategy games. Firaxis allegiedly "is changing". Boy, that does not sound good. In the gaming industry things rarely change for the better.

Another discussion with Josh and more:

Looter games are just not for me, but I question how much revelance top down Diablo game has. Specifically: why would I play Diablo4, and not let's say, Destiny2 - a game that has loot grinding, but also fundamentally satisfying gameplay loop (or so I hear). I like town down RPG's very much, but Diablo is one of those franchises that doesn't really make sense to me as a top down game anymore - it is a game where one controls a single character and clicks on things for them to die - spacial awarness has not been a factor in my limited experience with the genre. It is, by all accounts, an "action-RPG" and those have progressed far in their "action" bit since 90s. Somewhere between Diablo3&4 I heared a rumor pf cancelled third-person "Dark Souls-like" iteration - and that would be such a logical place to move the IP toward. Not making it soulslike, mind you, but take a peek at how FromSoftware married action and RPG and make something similar for Diablo - grinding dugenons in crunchy, 3rd person combat would be such a more compelling proposition, than this top down clicker. Still it looks good. I would be interested if it was genre I had any interest in. If there will be an open free weekend, I might jump in, play for an hour or two and get bored, as I do with every Diablo game.

Double Fine’s Psycho-oddysey documentary shows development of one such project, and how team lead can not be the best fit for the team and the project in spite of being clearly competent. Eh, we will see if Avowed will show up in the Microsoft’s not-e3 showcase. I am still waiting for Silksong, which was allegedly supposed to be release before this years E3.

Well, none of the quest broke, strictly speaking, so that's something. Ending slide

Finished Solasta's Lost Valley DLC. What the base game did well (5e combat) the DLC does better - more variety, more fun encounter a bit more challenge and ability to run into high level enemies. I thought original's campaign decision to be fairly linear was a good direction to take considering the scope of the game. More open nature of the DLC was a bit of the mess. Narrative side of the title is still rather weak, so I can't say I had any particular feelings about the factions and without linearity I struggled to remember what am I doing and why. Completing quest became more of a checking of boxes exercised. I made lady with a pettable wolf happy, so that's all I cared about in the end. It also became abundabtly clear that even limited non-linearity of the DLC was beyond the capabilities of the studio. By the end of the game the campaign barely held together. Turns out I did final mission without realising, and was stuck babysitting a critical NPC for a solid couple hours of gametime as I was tying up loose ends. On top of that after completing their chain quests two other factions sent me to the same final dungeon, which made things a bit awkward. The ending was rather anti-climactic, but maybe it was my fault for choosing a fairly pacifit route. Convincing baddy to not fight us was even more lame than in ME1. Especially disappointed as I did a bit of grinding to get to max level, and was finally able to craft some nice weapons - that I never got a chance to try out outside couple random encounters. To top it off, ending slides didn't get my choices right, though it is hardly surprised considering how much the game struggled to keep up with what is happening by the end of it. I do hope the final story DLC will be a bit more coherent.

I am in the same boat - I watched Uncharted4 and Last of Us playthroughs when they released. I will be probably hunting for a deep sale somewhere down the line. I wasn’t under an impression that I am missing anything by not playing those games.

Dang. I was late this time

I don't quite see what point he is trying to make - it seems more like a wishful thinking. Witcher3 was a massive success. If another cinematic RPG comes a long of the similar quality, wouldn't it be a massive success as well? Andromeda and Cyberpunk mistake, from what I understand, was that instead of being a "bioware-style" RPG they dreamed much bigger and didn't manage to reach that. He also mentions Baldur's Gate3 ignoring the fact it is a cinematic BioWare-style RPG. We will see how it will turn out, as it tries to marry Larian's systemic sandbox with a crap ton of cutscenes - might very well fall into Andromeda/Cyberpunk trap of trying to do too many things at the same time.

Starfield got release date: September 6th, 2023 On June 11th there will be "Starfield Direct" showcasing the game in detail, so we will learn what it is, and if there is anything worth looking forward to.

He is not with Obsidian anymore, and is working for Playstation. According to his Linkedin he co Sound Design Lead GoW:Ragnarok, or at least the final stretch of it. So unlikely.

Played a bit of Wo Long. Port must be the worst one I experienced in a long time. Nothing my 3070 couldn’t power through so far, but There are stutters and framerate isn’t smooth. I hear mouse and keyboard are atrocious but I play with controller, so can’t comment. I am lukewarm regarding the game so far. Didn’t play Niohs, so can’t compare. It feels sloppier and messier than FromSoftware games.

Levels in Celeste get pretty crazy, especially near the end. Love that game, but it requires some patience.

I am very not much to speed with FF games. I lost interest somewhere around VIII and just heard that MMO go very good, and XIII was a disappointment. I find YP’s view of FF IP interesting, as I thought it is a guaranteed gang buster seller, but I personally do see series as stale. Going action route isn’t really boosting my confidence - outside few exceptions I really dislike action RPGs, as I see action combat and stats as designs that clash, rather than contribute to each other. Still, “combat designer of DMC5” does peak my interest - not that I expect FFXVI to be a spectacle fighter, but maybe there will be a satisfying core combat there. I am also not on board with “dark” take - if it’s really mature setting, with interesting geopolitics I might dig it, but I had my fill of teen angst games. Still curious how the game will turn out and be received. Without PS I won’t have means to play it by a long time (if ever), so I don’t really have a horse in the race.

Return of the Obra Dinn Such a satisfying experience. Easily the best detective game I have played. In case you are unfamiliar with the premise - you get to explore memories of crew of a West India Company ship, and you need to deduce identity, fates and potential killers of each of the crew members. You need to correctly solve three fates for the game confirm those as correct - so cheesing the game would be difficult. A minor nitpic would be that solving some of the last fates will require abuse of said system - "I have couple candidates, so if I try switching them around and see what combination the game will confirm" - meaning it is actually impossible to exactly determine character's identity without confirmation system's existance. That said, to get there still some deduction and process of elimination has to be made, so I found it satisfying from gamey side (also my brained was also wired by this point to rejoice at the sound que of 3 fates solved - I should make it my morning alarm for a better start of the day). [edit]Just one YouTube video in, and it is clear enough that I missed at least some of the possible clues. So it is very much possible that all identities are solvable through deduction, but I just brute forced some of the final solutions[/edit] An actual complain would be that the secret chapter, unlocked only if all available fates are solved was underwhelming. If there was something meaningful to be found in it, than I have missed it.

Elden Ring got an expansion name and a concept art. Beyond that, all one can do is speculate Shadow of the Erdtree

Well, there is always beta branch, like they did with Witcher3. Honestly, even Witcher3 has some features I am looking forward to try out, I am not sure what OW:SCE aims to bring. I don't know, $9.99 feels like too much. That's not far from how much they charged for actual DLCs, and unless I am greatly underestimating changes to the game, it seems like a very steep pricetag for a very little improvement. I am curious whose decision it is. Microsoft's or Private Division's.

It's a remaster for PS5 and XBOX X/S (and PC while they are at it)