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The People's Republic of Clogher
That isn't new, I might have posted it before, but they reposted it today so I figured, why not. Getting close.
There's a decent chat with Luis Antonio here from this year's E3

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



The People's Republic of Clogher
Older readers may remember that I'd been playing, and 'finished', Bloodstained: Definitely Not Castlevania, Honest.

The brevity of the ending soured me on it a bit, even though I soon realised that there was another 'true' conclusion to the game. I left it a while then picked the game back up, starting from scratch. 20 hours later I think I'm nearing the proper finale.

I'm amazed that I love Bloodstained so much as it's from a genre that I'd never really gotten into, but love it I do and would say it's the best game I've played this year with a few caveats -

If you didn't spend too much time on the internet you will probably beat what you think is the final boss, go 'Huh' and exit the game. That you've really only done 70% of Bloodstained isn't explained and in order to unlock that, you've got to do something unintuitive.

For a game which places such an emphasis on crafting and trading, the menus sure are clunky. You're also frequently running 2 or 3 screens from the crafting guy to the shopkeeper in order to buy components. Either put them in the same room or have somewhere to pin your recipe.

Apart from that, Bloodstained is awful good. Exploration is fun and satisfying, combat is tight and there are so many weapon and armour/magic choices that you can play the game in a number of different ways. The story isn't exactly original but it's told with just the right amount of knowing camp that you soon realise it was crafted to be exactly that - fluff, but fun.

Videos and screenshots don't do justice to how gorgeous some of the backgrounds are .... unless you're on the Switch. Avoid the Switch port as if your life depends on it - It's low resolution, hitchy, slow to load areas and has an appreciable input lag to the controls.

Bloodstained is also on Xbox Game Pass for PC and console. Get it.



Courtney and I did our anniversary donut thing and combined it with Telling Lies, Sam Barlow's follow-up to Her Story, since it's that rare game we can be pretty confident going in that we'll enjoy.



It was good; the mechanic is 90% the same as Her Story, which is great; I feel like Barlow's kind of invented a new game genre with this and I hope he keeps putting out games in the same style. There's a little tweak to it that I liked, but actually misunderstood, which I won't describe in case anyone here is going to play it.

It's definitely more polished than Her Story, but it's less a mystery than a "piece together what happened out of order" kind of puzzle. There are still surprises and revelations along the way, but I had the basic sketch of what was going on pretty early and from there, just had to discover a handful of specifics and revelations. It felt like we got to 80% of what there was to discover in just a couple of hours, whereas with Her Story there were multiple "ohhhh!" realizations sprinkled throughout the 5-ish hours pretty consistently.

That might just be random, though, because the brilliance of these games is that it's totally open and you can technically discover anything at any time with the right search term, and if you proceed in roughly the way the creator expects then you'll feel you're getting a story doled out just so, with proper timing and build-up, but if you jump ahead here and there, it might not have that same rhythm. That's the cost of the game being so open, perhaps. Or the story this time really is just more straightforward (my guess: a bit of both).

It's good. It's not great. If you liked Her Story, this is well worth your time, and there's a lot to like. I hope we keep seeing more. And it was cool to see some recognizable actors in something like this.

I also think that, if you never played Her Story, you might even prefer this one, because the conceit in both is still so good that it's kind of like playing your first RPG, or your first open-world sandbox game: the mechanic itself is intoxicating when it's new. And that might be better, because you'll get to enjoy that mechanic with this (pretty good) game, and then move up to something more revelatory in Her Story after, where the story itself will buttress whatever novelty is lost in using the same mechanic again.

Recommended, for sure.
given my super high expectations, but
or better in a vacuum, trying to parse out the fact that it had a really tough act to follow.



The Adventure Starts Here!
I have that on my wishlist and will probably wait till it goes on sale, even if that takes a while. It's not like I don't have a bajillion other games to play in the meantime. I liked Her Story and assumed I'd like this one too. Thanks for not being too spoilery.



Oh, I forgot two things. One good, one bad:

1) The reason for the search limitations, which was just the old software in the previous game, is actually really clever in this one.

2) Without quite giving away #1, the result is that you just get one side of each conversation and need to find the other independently, which SOUNDS like a great twist but leads to a lot of fast-forwarding (contra Her Story where it's just one person talking basically the whole time). That little bit of tedium would be on-theme, and fine, if the one-sided nature led to a lot of cool misunderstandings and stuff, but it really doesn't.

In fact, I'm racking my brain for it really being used to particularly good effect at all, though. A few times you could use someone's response to guess what they were responding to and find the other side of the conversation, but there's no clever ambiguity, ala The Conversation, that subverts what you thought was happening. Big missed opportunity there, so all you're left with is the little bit of tedium.



The People's Republic of Clogher
I'll definitely end up buying this, but I'm not really feeling it at the moment. Loved Her Story to bits and, if I'm honest, I was a little disappointed when I found out that Telling Lies would use the same basic premise.

The Brit FMV scene continues to be strong, however.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
I think I got my nephew hooked on The Long Dark. I'm staying with him all week while his parents are on vacation. His parent is actually my dad, but adopted him (my nephew). It's complicated. The point is that I'm staying at their house till Sunday night. My dad is clumsy when it comes to home networking and general electronics like connecting wires and cables. They recently bought a new TV and have a new ISP modem/router so he tried to hook things back up and failed miserably. I thought it was easier to just bring my PS4 from home to watch some movies with the kid than to untangle and sort the 30 or so cables he has stuffed behind the equipment.

After the movie the kid asked about "that game I was talking about" a while back, so I flipped the menu over to it and ran a quick demo. He loved it. I set up a new survivor game for him last night to start fresh and he just happened to start in the same area I was playing in so it was familiar. Too, there were several houses and structures nearby so he didn't have to die right off (like I did). Later he asked how much the game costs.

So yeah. Another inductee.
__________________
"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear



The People's Republic of Clogher
Bought Control yesterday after finally making it to the store to trade some discs. It is now in my backlog, but I've moved it to the top.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
Bought Control yesterday after finally making it to the store to trade some discs. It is now in my backlog, but I've moved it to the top.
I'm excited to get your take on it all. I suggest keeping subtitles on as the Janitor's accent is pretty thick and I have no idea where it's from.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
Bought Control yesterday after finally making it to the store to trade some discs. It is now in my backlog, but I've moved it to the top.
I can't "like" your post twice, so I'm quoting again to show my enthusiasm!!



The People's Republic of Clogher
I'm excited to get your take on it all. I suggest keeping subtitles on as the Janitor's accent is pretty thick and I have no idea where it's from.
I remember reading somewhere that it's rural Finnish, and he drops in traditional Finnish phrases translated to English to further throw people off.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
I've been staying with my nephew the past 12 days so I've not been able to continue CONTROL. I am comforted though that Tacitus' disappearance suggests that he may be lost in the Oldest House as acting Director in my absence.

Thank you, Tacitus, for being chosen to wield the sidearm. May you fend of the mold source where I failed.



The People's Republic of Clogher
I've been staying with my nephew the past 12 days so I've not been able to continue CONTROL. I am comforted though that Tacitus' disappearance suggests that he may be lost in the Oldest House as acting Director in my absence.

Thank you, Tacitus, for being chosen to wield the sidearm. May you fend of the mold source where I failed.
I've played a few hours and have liked it so far, probably more than I've liked any Remedy game since Max Payne. Whether I love it or not, I'll find out soon enough - The game has just started to open up and I feel like I'm now playing the *real* Control.

RDR2 online has been taking up most of my time recently. It's the first time I've ever bought a Battle Pass equivalent for anything, and the temptation sure is there to log in as often as possible and max the thing out.

Red Dead online is getting properly good.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Oh, I forgot two things. One good, one bad:

1) The reason for the search limitations, which was just the old software in the previous game, is actually really clever in this one.

2) Without quite giving away #1, the result is that you just get one side of each conversation and need to find the other independently, which SOUNDS like a great twist but leads to a lot of fast-forwarding (contra Her Story where it's just one person talking basically the whole time). That little bit of tedium would be on-theme, and fine, if the one-sided nature led to a lot of cool misunderstandings and stuff, but it really doesn't.

In fact, I'm racking my brain for it really being used to particularly good effect at all, though. A few times you could use someone's response to guess what they were responding to and find the other side of the conversation, but there's no clever ambiguity, ala The Conversation, that subverts what you thought was happening. Big missed opportunity there, so all you're left with is the little bit of tedium.
Right now I'm playing The Shapeshifting Detective -- a Brit FMV game -- and so far I'm having fun with it. I actually didn't realize the obvious feature of the game at first, having read nothing about it beforehand, so I may have missed some early clues because I moved ahead to the next chapter and THEN figured out a key element of the game I should have been using from the beginning. Duh.

Anyone else playing this? @Yoda, I think Steam is telling me you also own it...



The People's Republic of Clogher
Right now I'm playing The Shapeshifting Detective -- a Brit FMV game -- and so far I'm having fun with it. I actually didn't realize the obvious feature of the game at first, having read nothing about it beforehand, so I may have missed some early clues because I moved ahead to the next chapter and THEN figured out a key element of the game I should have been using from the beginning. Duh.

Anyone else playing this? @Yoda, I think Steam is telling me you also own it...
Own it. Really like it. Know a lot of the people who made it.

They're well on the way with their next game, a spin off featuring Poe and Munro from Shapeshifting Detective.



The Adventure Starts Here!
I just found out that you can play through this more than once and have different things happen. So now I like it even more. I know I like a game when I start making mental to-do lists of important tasks I can now put off for a few days so I can keep playing. I just hit that moment after writing my last post here.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
My nephew has x-box, but I was pleased to hear him comment on how much better the ps4 controller feels



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
My nephew has x-box, but I was pleased to hear him comment on how much better the ps4 controller feels

There is hope for the young generation yet! Triangle, Square, Cross, Square 4L!