Everything Video Games!

I absolutely sucked at it. More a judgement on my gaming skills than the game!

If it makes you feel any better, that's how I feel about From Software games. Except those games also actively steal progress from you which makes my sucking against the bosses far more agrivating for me than if I just had to try again.
 
Beat God of War: Ragnarok. Thoughts:

The story definitely takes too long to pick up and is poorly written in spots, and I stand by my earlier complaints, but it does end very strong. Pretty impressed with how mature the themes are of this game (grief, regret, fate, etc) and how much they build off the previous games in the series. Especially Kratos' character arc. Very moving to see him so vulnerable and wise knowing what he's been through. The last few missions are also a lot of fun.

The combat is good, more or less the same as the last game, but becomes great when you get the spear. Very fun weapon. Of course the visuals and music are phenomenal, and the performances as well. Especially Christopher Judge as Kratos, and Richard Schiff as Odin.

Overall GoW 2018 WOWed me more, but that's probably because it was so fresh at the time. This is a solid sequel with some flaws. Elden Ring is probably still my GotY. This would be an excellent conclusion to the franchise, though I'm not sure I see that happening. We'll see!
 
I absolutely sucked at it. More a judgement on my gaming skills than the game!

If it makes you feel any better, that's how I feel about From Software games. Except those games also actively steal progress from you which makes my sucking against the bosses far more agrivating for me than if I just had to try again.
I think both these comments point out a similar but opposite approach to design philosophy in both games - which is to lean into the mechanics. Doom wants quick and ruthless combat, keeping mobile and aggressive will tend to lead to victory, whereas slowing down at any time will usually lead to death. From Soft is often the opposite - careful consideration and commitment is the best way to survive. Panicking, button mashing and taking initiative will often lead to your doom. Neither system is perfect, but in both cases playing into those systems is usually the fastest way to victory. Adding to that, when you and the game are in perfect sync, there's little out there that is more satisfying.

I fully agree on the progress thing in From Soft games, it can often be overly punishing, and some of the retreading through difficult areas can be very frustrating. I think this is one of Elden Rings biggest improvements over the others, checkpoints are much more forgiving overall. I'm playing through Dark Souls 3 right now, and I forgot how much of a chore running back to a boss fight can be.
 
Just grabbed both the Cowabunga Collection AND No Man’s Sky for switch for $60 collectively. Always good to patiently wait on BF prices and treat yo self.

I've already put over 100 hours into No Man's Sky in like three and a half weeks. It's video game crack zipping around in my ship and exploring planets. It's ridiculous how good it runs and looks on the Switch.
 
I’ve only put 2-3 hours in and while I haven’t seen anything heinous or gamebreaking, it is a bafflingly poor-running game. Especially weird for how simple the graphics are. Lots of characters walking, stopping, turning, then walking then stopping to talk (like they settle into a slot); lots of moments the camera intersects with terrain; lots of low frame rate movements; characters will close one eye and never reopen it. Open world was a big mistake.

There’s still a decent core pokemon game under there, though I’m still going through a lot of tutorials and story setup. I basically spent two hours being introduced to school only for the dean to announce we must all leave the school and venture out on our own.
 
Last edited:
I’ve only put 2-3 hours in and while I haven’t seen anything heinous or gamebreaking, it is a bafflingly poor-running game. Especially weird for how simple the graphics are. Lots of characters walking, stopping, turning, then walking then stopping to talk (like they settle into a slot); lots of moments the camera intersects with terrain; lots of low frame rate movements; characters will close one eye and never reopen it. Open world was a big mistake.

There’s still a decent core pokemon game under there, though I’m still going through a lot of tutorials and story setup. I basically spent two hours being introduced to school only for the dean to announce we must all leave the school and venture out on our own.
General consensus seems to be that the core game design is maybe the best they’ve ever had and the technical aspects are an unmitigated disaster
 
After not playing Elden Ring for a few months, the From Soft itch has come back. The ointment this time is Dark Souls 3, which I had started before Elden Ring came out, but didn't finish. I started over with a new character. Tried to make as close as I could to Bender from Futurama, but it is a horrible monstrosity. Decided to go with the twin blades and figured the character would have a spin move (they do), so I named my crime against humanity Blender. Having fun with the game overall, though going from an open world game to one more linear was a bit of an adjustment and made me miss the action breaks in ER. The twin blades are fun and do pretty good damage, though the spin move sadly isn't great. Haven't really struggled with any boss yet - last boss I beat was Dancer right after Yhorm, and I'm in the castle area that opens after that. My only real complaint is that some of the enemies feel a bit cheap, especially the boss in Anor Londo. Ornstein and Smaugh is one of my favorites in the series, but what took residence after the events of the first game sucked. Was seriously disappointed by the fight, and I swear one of my deaths was from just brushing up against her while no attack was happening, doing over half my health in one hit for nearly every attack. May have been underleveled, but at the same time a freaking giant did less damage while swinging MUCH harder. Oh well, I'm past it and on to the next thing, going off of the main story bosses I'm 3/5 through the game, though I imagine there's a bit more than I expect left to do.
 
I absolutely sucked at it. More a judgement on my gaming skills than the game!
me too - I got it on sale for the Switch a few months back and it's one of the few games I just completely gave up on and uninstalled halfway through (as it was a 30+gb waste of space on my memory card)... it's not a bad game, as a matter of fact it's very highly reviewed, but I sucked at it and hated it.
 
I’ve only put 2-3 hours in and while I haven’t seen anything heinous or gamebreaking, it is a bafflingly poor-running game. Especially weird for how simple the graphics are. Lots of characters walking, stopping, turning, then walking then stopping to talk (like they settle into a slot); lots of moments the camera intersects with terrain; lots of low frame rate movements; characters will close one eye and never reopen it. Open world was a big mistake.

There’s still a decent core pokemon game under there, though I’m still going through a lot of tutorials and story setup. I basically spent two hours being introduced to school only for the dean to announce we must all leave the school and venture out on our own.

I have completed the main story now, and only crashed 3 times. While there are some performance issues, there were not serious issues. I don't understand why so many people are saying the game is "unplayable".

Do people see the performance issues and consider that a game stopper because they are divas and have ultra high expectations?

I get it they should probably delayed to work out the issues, something that's all too common with games these days.

But at the end of the day they sold a lot of games.

God of War Ragnarök set sales records for Sony and Pokemon sold 2X as many copies to put it into expected. Major game drop.
 
I have completed the main story now, and only crashed 3 times. While there are some performance issues, there were not serious issues. I don't understand why so many people are saying the game is "unplayable".

Do people see the performance issues and consider that a game stopper because they are divas and have ultra high expectations?

I get it they should probably delayed to work out the issues, something that's all too common with games these days.

But at the end of the day they sold a lot of games.

God of War Ragnarök set sales records for Sony and Pokemon sold 2X as many copies to put it into expected. Major game drop.
People online get pretty intense, especially around pokemon it seems. Every announced feature or change has been met with anger. I felt like I was taking a risk buying Scarlet, and am reminded of the Cyberpunk release last year; I was hyped for that game but still haven’t bothered to buy it after hearing how unhappy people were with it.

Pokémon isn’t as broken as that game seemed to be, but I think the discrepancy between the graphical quality and how it runs is pretty horrid. The ground textures are cheap and repetitive, animations are stilted, the scale of the people and overworld pokemon Is weird (grown ups tower over me, while somehow children are absolutely tiny).

Have I crashed? No? Is in unplayable? Nope. Are the user reviews cranky and hyperbolic? Definitely. Should they have waited until the game was more polished to release it for sixty bucks? I think so.
 
People online get pretty intense, especially around pokemon it seems. Every announced feature or change has been met with anger. I felt like I was taking a risk buying Scarlet, and am reminded of the Cyberpunk release last year; I was hyped for that game but still haven’t bothered to buy it after hearing how unhappy people were with it.

Pokémon isn’t as broken as that game seemed to be, but I think the discrepancy between the graphical quality and how it runs is pretty horrid. The ground textures are cheap and repetitive, animations are stilted, the scale of the people and overworld pokemon Is weird (grown ups tower over me, while somehow children are absolutely tiny).

Have I crashed? No? Is in unplayable? Nope. Are the user reviews cranky and hyperbolic? Definitely. Should they have waited until the game was more polished to release it for sixty bucks? I think so.

I am playing Cyberpunk right now and having more fun with it than any game I've played in at least a couple years. I'm probably 30 hours in too.

If you go in expecting an interactive sandbox, you'll have a bad time. If you go in expecting a Fallout 3 / Bioware / Far Cry hybrid in a Blade Runner universe than you'll have a good time. The story and world are great.

That said, I would NOT touch it if you have a previous gen console as your primary device.
 
Last edited:
Pokémon’s been fun so far; now that I’m out of the tutorial and doing some battling/catching/exploring I’m enjoying myself. Been playing in small bites, which suits the game. Trying to stick with new (or at least new to me) mons in my party rather than familiar favorites.

Only gameplay gripe so far is you don’t know if you’re outleveled in an area until you’re in a tough or unwinnable battle. Having to let someone chew through your entire party one by one can be tedious.
 
Is there still a way to hack/mod a Nintendo Wii to play games from an external hard drive in 2022?

External links are fine, appreciate it in advance.
 
So I am on a work retreat + vacation combo and have been yanked away from Cyberpunk 😪.

However, i grabbed Horace on a whim via Switch for the plane ride. I'm maybe 2.5 hours in and this game is... incredible?

8-16 bit platformer throwback with a gravity boots twist. But more importantly, the story is wonderfuly written so far and the game is wicked funny. Think Douglas Adam's philosophical wit with a plethora of pop culture references thrown in. Not sure how this game slipped so under the rader. I first saw it on a list of the best indie games for Switch (and it was very high on that list) but don't think I've seen or heard it mentioned anywhere else.

 
So I am on a work retreat + vacation combo and have been yanked away from Cyberpunk 😪.

However, i grabbed Horace on a whim via Switch for the plane ride. I'm maybe 2.5 hours in and this game is... incredible?

8-16 bit platformer throwback with a gravity boots twist. But more importantly, the story is wonderfuly written so far and the game is wicked funny. Think Douglas Adam's philosophical wit with a plethora of pop culture references thrown in. Not sure how this game slipped so under the rader. I first saw it on a list of the best indie games for Switch (and it was very high on that list) but don't think I've seen or heard it mentioned anywhere else.


Is there any skiing in it?

 
Back
Top