Morning Folks. This topic had been lodged in my head for a few weeks, and this morning I am attempting to do it justice. I will probably fail. I talk about the problem where we gamers have this bad habit of personifying a Game Studio as though it were something similar to a favorite author.
Recently I found a copy of Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure, and I have been playing it a bit this evening.
It's a true nostalgia trip. A lot of gaming memories from my youth are thanks to my dad. My parents divorced when I was young and once every two weeks my sister and I would stay the weekend at my dad's, who at one point bought us a Mega Drive. 🙏
I never owned this game but we often had rental games and this one we rented quite a few times! ☺️
It's a great platformer! It borrows heavily from other games in the genre, but in a good way. There are many stages, and the difficulty ramps up quickly! I'm glad this game has a password system~ 😅
Some parts really need memorizing in order to get through. I don't have much patience so these kind of games are not something I can play all evening without losing my temper, but it's a very enjoyable title. The music is great as well~ 🎶
After all these years I'm finally checking out Alice: Madness Returns! It has a few bugs but it runs well enough for an older game. The graphics have aged pretty well! It also runs nicely on Steam Deck! The only downside is the lack of cloud save support.
I finally cleared the Vah Naboris Divine Beast quest. I think the worst part of the quest was sneaking through the Yiga Clan hideout. Once that was done, getting to Vah Naboris, stopping it, and climbing into it wasn't too bad.
The rotating cylinder parts of the quest did make my physically queasy, but looking away from my TV helped a lot. The boss of this area wasn't too bad either. #BreathOfTheWild#Zelda#VideoGames#ShareYourGames
Hey Folks! I said yesterday that I was not mainlining #Enshrouded... then spent the entire evening mainlining Enshrouded. I made a bunch of progress unlocking new tradesfolk and then started some minor renovations on my primary base.
Morning Folks! This is ultimately the post that I intended to make yesterday... as I talk through my feelings regarding some of the new systems I have encountered in #WorldOfWarcraft.
Specifically, I talk about how my list of negatives about the game has dwindled down to only a couple of things.
Morning Folks! It is the last day of #Blaugust2023 and I do my best to set some expectations for how stressful "Tabulation Day" is going to be for me this year. I also talk a bit more about #PathOfExile and also talk a little bit about dipping my toes into #Starfield soon.
Just me and my mount at a campfire site.
Doing a quest line now, after which I'll save (if I find another campfire) and then I'll hit the treadmill for a walk.
Main quest at the moment is "the Dying Lands".
This is the final issue that I have.
I really hope that one day I can get more of them, as well as the remaining Nintendo Magazine System issues that I'm missing.
But for now, all the Total! issues that I have are available on the site.
Morning Folks! It took me a bit to get this pulled together, but I spent some time diving into my latest #PathOfExile build a Fire Conversion Shield Crush Chieftain. It was way more expensive than I would have liked it... which makes me hesitant to recommend it. It has way more uniques than I am generally comfortable with, which creates challenges for hitting resistances.
Hello sweet #gamers and awesome friends! It's the #WiiKend here again...
So I thought I'd kick off with a game I bought and then never played.... Yay for backlogs and all that, right? 😉
Anyone played this one? It's the #Nintendo#Wii game Chocobo's Dungeon.
TLDR: Final Fantasy XVI is a masterpiece with serious pacing issues.
It is rare for me to pay full price for a game, but after trying the demo of FFXVI, I was waving my credit card. The unusually dark and violent story grabbed me immediately. And even though the battle mechanics didn't pull me in immediately, I bought the game on release date, hungry for more.
After three months (including a break of a few weeks), and 65 hours of playing, the credits rolled. Finally.
"Finally." That doesn't sound good, does it?
The story being told is great, I love it! The grim atmosphere of the first hours is being maintained throughout and it is a true rollercoaster. It is rather complex though, because there are a lot of things going on, there are many characters that play a role in a very grand scheme, and there is a large focus on political happenings. I've seen people compare it to Game Of Thrones, but I can't confirm that since I haven't watched it. Luckily there's a contextual encyclopedia during each cutscene that explains the setting and relevant characters should you need to remind yourself of the details.
The battle system is a huge departure from the earlier FF installments. The series left its turn-based roots a long time ago, but this time, the party system is also abandoned. That's right, you only play with Clive, the protagonist of the story. Sure, you have companions during the story, and you can give orders to your best friend Torgal, the cutest dog. But that's all. As Clive, you gather various abilities as you deal with Dominants and their Eikons (the summons that FF players are familiar with, such as Ifrit and Shiva) and as such you can shape the way you engage in battle. Unfortunately, you can only have a maximum of three Eikons active, which doesn't give you too much flexibility. Nonetheless, the action is tight and fluid, and it always looks great! Wow! I often paused during battle to use the photo mode.
Besides the main story line, the world is filled with side quests. Lots of side quests, many of which are the run-of-the-mill fetch quests that feel empty (as often in FF games). Only a few of them are worth it, because they use the lore in an impressive way or because the reward is very well worth the effort. Other than the regular side quests, there's also a monster hunt board.
In the second half of the story, some weird choices have been made. Not so much in the story itself, but the gameplay in between feels dragged. Lots of walking, talking and forgettable battles make the game feel a bit like a chore at that point, especially after doing some side quests as well. It's also at this point that the battle system starts to feel repetitive and that's when I decided to push through and finish the main story and abandon all side activities. A good choice because the game would continue to throw (boss) battles at me, and it would still be a while before I'd reach the ending.
"Finally". The game's biggest flaw is its artificial length. It has a negative impact on both the story and gameplay. Should the main story be 20% shorter, I would give this game a 9/10. Because there's so much to love. There are some EPIC battles that just overwhelm with beautiful graphics and the most bombastic music you'll ever hear. The world looks beautiful, the cast is interesting and I love the attention to detail in about everything.
One last thing I would like to mention is that the game often doesn't feel like an FF game. The story, the setting and the battle system are quite different from its predecessors and it is only because of familiar elements such as Chocobos, the summons and the characteristic enemies that you are reminded of playing a Final Fantasy game. I wouldn't mind part 17 to return to the series roots a bit more, but I have to praise how fresh and relevant this part feels as well.
Despite some of the issues with this game, I am happy to have played it. Because at the end of the day, it's a masterpiece. <3
Stream time! :) In an hour I'll be stumbling my way through #DeadSpace, relying on the #accessibility features and a helpfully written guide by the community to see how far I can get as a fully #blind#gamer. We'll likely get horribly destroyed several times, chase our tail even more often and maybe, just maybe, get some actual progress. Content/trigger warnings apply for this one, gory horror game, viewer disgression strongly advised. https://twitch.tv/zersiax#goingLive#twitch#shareYourGames
This one took a little longer since I needed to create the new sections on the website and especially the logo for the catalogue page, which needed some extra work.
But this first entry in the series is finally ready.
Super Action 2 - November 1992 (UK) has just been added to the magazine catalogue.
OK I just got to a new zone in the game Gigantosaurus and I now have a pet-peeve with it. You can't control the camera angle 😔.
And there's a lot of timed jumping, I'm bad at that. But when I can position the camera myself, it's a tad easier. Now I feel I miss some depth perception at times.
I'll keep trying. Hopefully I'll get better at it. 😊
Have you played it? What were your thoughts on it?
Morning Folks! I had a rather expensive day in #PathOfExile as I bankrupted myself to pick up a near perfect Brass Dome and an Elder Pseudo-Six-Link Helm to swap Fire Trap over to my chestpiece. I also picked up my first two void stones, and am enjoying hunting for cities down in Delve.