Keyrock

Random Lost Judgment tomfoolery: Playing darts against a Russian ninja: Out on a hot date: Much like in the first game, there's a very short section where I get to play as Saori: Again, like in the first game I get to get her out of her cardigan and into a dress. Outside of facial structure, it's basically a full-fledged character creator: They don't give me all of Kamurocho to roam, just a heavily invisible walled off street to walk down. On the bright side, at least the camera function was left available which allowed me to snap a selfie of Saori and Mari out on the town: In the first game they let me have Saori tag along in Premium Adventure while I mop up unfinished side quests. In an ideal world Saori tags along in Kamurocho while Kyoko Amasawa tags along in Ijincho: I guess I'll find out when I finish the main story.

Lost Judgment Japanese games always have the best looking food: My #1 priority in this game is to help the Seiryo Rabbits win the national championship: If RGG do decide to change the protagonist for future games they could go with Kyoko Amasawa: If the game happens 2 or 3 years from now (presumably Yakuza: Like a Dragon 2 [or whatever they call it] will be the next RGG game) she'll have finished high school by then. She's already an amateur detective, she just needs to learn to smash people with bicycles and traffic cones. Also, she has an adorable pet dog which she trained to be her detective partner: Speaking of adorable animals:

Serrano is generally where I draw the line these days, I don't **** with peppers hotter than that. I have eaten hotter peppers in the past, but those are just that, in the past.

Very interesting, so they took a movie that was never finished and released for whatever reason and ADR'd the missing audio? Vinegar Syndrome has a good reputation in taking old forgotten B movies and putting out high quality transfers, plus this sort of kung fu exploitation looking movie is exactly my jam. Color me excited.

It's been some years since I played the first 2 Bayonetta games but I don't recall ever having any trouble keeping track of what was going on, where I was, what I was doing, the enemies telegraphing attacks, this despite the fact that the games were quite busy visually. I did blister the **** out of my thumbs, though. I'm already bracing myself for another round of that pain.

After 19 years Metroid 5 is almost here.

I was wondering if this game was still happening:

I'm in the middle of a murder investigation and what am I spending my time on? Chasing down "UFOs", finding a new owner for a cat, and, most importantly, helping the Seiryo Rabbits win a dance competition. Priorities. RGG added a skateboard in this game that lets you get around the city much faster. I mean Yakuza games have always had fast travel via taxi but I never use that and I don't even use the sketeboard right now. Early on in RGG games I like to take my time and walk around because the cities are so well crafted. RGG are second to none in this area. Novigrad in TW3 is the best non-RGG city I can think of in terms of feeling like a real city, but Kamurocho is on another level and Ijincho is even better. The attention to detail is just insane. What really puts it over the top is the sound design, the ambient sounds. The noise of traffic, a train going by, music fading in and out as you pass by an open window, conversation just on the edge of hearing, the sizzle of a street food being cooked, I can practicaly taste the takoyaki. I think part of it is because Kamurocho, Sotenbori, and Ijincho are relatively small when compared to something you'd find in an Ubisoft or Rockstar game, for example. It's easier to concentrate on detail when you have a smaller area to work on. I'll take a smaller but exceptionally crafted sandbox over a larger decently crafted one, but that's just me. Anyway, I'm off to catch a panty thief scaling a building...

I'm playing Lost Judgment on PS4 (Pro). Technically, it doesn't release until Friday, but since I "pre-ordered" it I get to play it early. I put "pre-ordered" in quotes since buying a game a few days before launch when reviews have already been out in the wild (RGG and SEGA have confidence in their game so they lifted the review embargo well before launch) is rather different than pre-ordering months ahead of time with nothing but trailers and media hype to go on. Anyway, it's a Ryu Ga Gotoku game, if you like their games, and I most definitely do, you will almost certainly like this. The Judgment series is in essence continuing what the Yakuza series did during the Kiryu Kazuma saga with action combat where you smash thugs with bicycles. Meanwhile, Yakuza is continuing with turn-based JRPG Dragon Quest-esque combat, presumably with the lovable Ichiban Kasuga as the main protagonist. The one... I hesitate to call this a misstep since it's critical to the main story, but one of the main areas the game takes place is a school and as Takayuki Yagami you get to beat the **** out of some kids. Granted, these kids are *******s but it still feels weird and wrong to be kicking the crap out of children as a middle-aged guy with a wallet chain. That quibble aside, you get to make friends with some of the kids, help them resolve issues, and get into wacky shenanigans like getting roped into helping the dance club choreograph their dance routine. It's the standard juggling act of crazy tonal shifts between very serious dramatic issues and hilarious hijinks that has no right to work but somehow always does because RGG are really good at this. It's how well the characters are written and acted that helps carry this. You meet a kid like Kyoko Anasawa from the Mystery Research Club and you can't help but want to get wrapped up in her story because she's so likable. As an aside, I wonder what will happen after this game. The rumor is that the reason the Judgment games aren't on PC is because the agency representing the actor who plays Yagami is blocking it (because... ??? ). If the rumors are to be believed, RGG and SEGA are rather unhappy about this because RGG is obviously quite capable and comfortable in putting their games on PC (all the Yakuza games are on PC minus the weird Japan-only spinoffs) and they are losing out on another source of profit. I heard they plan to cut bait with the actor after this game so we may get a different protagonist in future games.

It was the story, more than anything, that set Betrayal at Krondor apart way back in the day. The game mechanics were serviceable (for the time, they're downright archaic by today's standards) but nothing special. Getting sucked into a web of political espionage was such a welcome departure from the chosen one must find the MacGuffin to stop the great evil stories that dominated the scene back then and still do to a lesser extent. Still, I'm glad someone is paying homage to BaK. I feel like it gets unfairly overlooked in the annals *checks off vocab word* of great old RPGs.

Our offense looks great this year; I realize I write that after scoring only 17 points. Dak is not quite a franchise QB but he's definitely an above average legit starter. Blake Jarwin is solid, Amari Cooper is good, and CeeDee Lamb is a bonafide star. Zeke looks a lot better than last year and Pollard is a stud. Provided we don't shoot ourselves in the foot, which is admittedly a big ask of muh Boys, we can score with anyone. The other side of the ball is a different story.

This is definitely aping Betrayal at Krondor. Can it be anywhere near as good?

Muh Boys won, Iggles lost, Jameis threw picks; it's been a great day of football.

Jameis gonna Jameis. Will Jameis Winston throw a bunch of touchdowns? Will he throw a bunch of picks? Heck, he might do both. Tune in next week for another exciting episode of N'awlins football!

Finished a "regular" playthrough of Encased. It's a very good old skool RPG. I mean let's just call it what it is, it's Fallout 1/2. The weakest part of the game is the combat; it's not terrible, it's just fairly basic and not particularly exciting. The combat is functional, that's the best way I can put it. The good news is that there's as little or as much combat as you want there to be; there are alternate ways, often multiple, to solve or bypass every problem. I'm definitely going to play the game again and do either the low IQ or the ghost run. I may do both at some point.

No clue if this game will be any good, or even what kind of game it will be, given the lack of gameplay, but that's one hell of a trailer:

Maybe that's just for the trailer? In an ideal world you import your save game from Elex (or answer some questions at the start) and an early cutscene or two is different depending on who you hooked up with. Then Caja/Nasty gets killed off for your standard revenge motivation and off you go.

The Eurojank Legend Returns:

Nobody in the trailer went prone. 0/10 Would Not Play. On a serious note, very little gameplay was shown so there wasn't time to show off all features. That said, I will be EXTREMELY disappointed if you can't go prone.

Outcast was ahead of its time. As an aside, Outkast were also ahead of their time.

Titan Quest was my favorite loot em up(lmup?) until Grim Dawn (essentially Better Titan Quest) came along. The one thing I prefer about TQ over GD is the setting, I love me some Greek mythology. I'm looking forward to revisiting the game.

If this whole non-combat RPG thing were to become a trend, I would be perfectly fine with that.