I finally got around to restarting God of War. I played the first few hours on PS4 a while back, and was overwhelmed, felt like it threw too much at me all at once, and I couldn’t be bothered to learn all the combat and mechanics. I got it for PC and started fresh, took it slow and used exploration to learn all I could, and shit, now I get it, this game is a masterpiece. It looks gorgeous in 4K, and the combat is loads of fun. And quite possibly my favorite thing is getting to hear Teal’c again (I freaking love Christopher Judge).

Now I just need to play something mindless to fill the next few weeks before Ragnarok releases on PC.

I appreciate the advice. My PS4 is just a lowly slim, not a Pro, so it is definitely showing its age. But I’ll for sure take this into account, thanks!

I got a ton of play out of my PS4 at the height of the pandemic, and have been considering a PS5 for a while now, but I just didn’t think it was worth it. I’m probably in the minority, but I think I would probably buy this, if the spec bump was significant enough. I also really hope they release it in black. It’s silly, but the white 90’s router is so so ugly, and frankly one of the reasons I’ve stayed away. If they charge more than $600 though, it’ll be a hard no. Don’t fuck this up Sony.

Walking on the ground was hard enough, now they want us to walk on the beach??

Okay I’m in.

I don’t have an Xbox, but I’m thrilled any time companies add good customizable accessibility options. It’s good for folks who really need it, but also usually good for those of us who just like to customize everything as much as possible. Everybody wins.

Huh, so now it’s the verge, but less unique and creative. Not to disparage anyone doing redesigns, it’s a valiant effort.

I had the same experience with pretty much the same hardware. I played right after launch and had one or two crashes and a few stutters here and there, but otherwise I found it to be a surprisingly stable game, especially considering the wildly negative press it was getting at the time.

I played it on my RTX 3070 shortly after launch, and while there were certainly some stutters here and there and the very occasional crash, for the most part it actually ran fine. I think the poor quality of the PC port has been seriously overblown. Granted I don’t care much about sustaining insanely high frame rates, but the game itself was amazing on its own, and even better having played and enjoyed the first one. Well worth any remaining technical glitches.

I just finished Ghost of Tsushima. It was a beautiful game with really fun combat, and a pretty solid storyline. Exploration was excellent, despite the rewards being a bit underwhelming, but it was one of those rare games where I wanted to explore every corner of the map. I loved the variety of the map, every region genuinely felt unique and gorgeous for its own reasons. It was also the perfect length. I did alllll of the side quests, so the main plot ended up feeling just right, not too long, definitely not too short. Highly recommended.

DO YA REALLY WANNA DO YA REALLY WANNA TASTE IIIIT!

I just watched it twice in a row, thank you very much.

I feel you, and part of the reason we don’t have access to cheaper and better options is because of Meta’s monopolistic instinct. They bought oculus, which had been actively innovating, instead of competing with them and strengthening the market by developing their own product. It’s not like they didn’t have the money.

I don’t fault anyone for buying their stuff if it’s cool, my stand is purely a stubborn one at this point. I just won’t touch Meta with a ten foot pole.

For someone as apparently intelligent as Mark, it’s amazing how stupid he is.

It doesn’t matter what you do or say, Mark, I will never buy something produced by or associated with Meta. Don’t care how groundbreaking or revolutionary it might be.

I see you, Mark. I’ve watched how you operate for the last 20 years, Mark. I’ll never give you a cent.

Quantum Break was SO good. I’ll die on that hill. I want more of it.

John Oliver will be the true test of Disney’s ability to stretch copyright law to its limits.

I think you’re describing the hype, not the reality. It cost $59.99 at launch, I paid $23.99 last week. Very typical pricing these days. It is genuinely not Magic Call of Duty, I think that was just a hook the developers threw around so people had a frame of reference for a game that no one knew anything about. The only similarity is that it’s first person.

The layoffs are shit, I wish that hadn’t happened. Companies need to have a little grace and keep some damn employees on salary, the whole release and layoff cycle is completely ridiculous. But to be clear, that was EA’s decision, a huge evil megacorp, not the creatives who made a really fun new game.

I’m deep into Immortals of Aveum. I don’t know what all the hate is about, I’m having an awesome time with it. The combat is tight and satisfying, the writing is sharp and witty, and the plot is refreshingly original.

It runs like shit on my high-end gaming PC, so that sucks, but it hasn’t detracted from the insanely fun gameplay and great story.

Toufexis has such a uniquely recognizable voice. I felt like the Leonardo Decaprio meme when he popped up on Expanse.

It’s a shame, you could tell he really cared about the franchise.

Can one take a stake in a company? Or do they buy a stake in a company by purchasing shares? Why can’t we just use the words that are meant for the thing we’re describing?

Taking a stake implies that they just yoink grab it and it’s theirs. Buying a stake means spending money to own a share. Maybe it’s a silly technicality, but words matter goddamnit.

I’ll second this. The gameplay is super tight and intuitive, and easy to play in bite-sized chunks. The story is more thoughtful and interesting than it has any right to be. I was really shocked how much I enjoyed this game, it completely took me by surprise. Only downside imo is that the actual storyline is short, like just a few hours. Pretty good replay value though.

Yeah, I’m seeing stuff like that. I fast traveled at some point, and my journal immediately updated to tell me that Halsin had left for good and would no longer help me. But he was still chillin at camp…and that wasn’t the first or only problem I had with him.

I might just start a fresh save after this patch drops.

Gooood. I honestly had to stop playing for a bit, everything started breaking once I got past Act 1. I feel like many of the decisions I made, which seemed normal at the time, broke the story’s continuity and interactions. I reached NPCs before I was supposed to, explored side quest locations before I knew there were quests there (fuck you and your parents, Oliver…), fast traveled when I shouldn’t have, etc. etc.

And don’t get me started on Halsin…

Yeah, makes sense. The man’s face looked real to me, but that’s about it.

I’m a little confused by this. Was it live action? Some closeup bits seem like they were maybe live action, most of it didn’t. And if so, why? This is a video game, right? What am I missing?

I think maybe I’m wasting energy trying to figure out what they were trying to say with this very weird trailer.

Well alright, I’ll bite.

Yeah I know what you mean. Their style of banter and humor can be jarring, it took me a bit to get used to their way of talking about things. But once you get to know their personalities they become seriously endearing. Big fan of the whole crew now.

Pessimism is another story though. While I can totally see how you might see/hear them that way, I interpret it more as realism than pessimism. They know their industry in and out, so they’re not shy about telling it how it is.

Remap Radio is pretty awesome. They’re the same Waypoint Radio team from Vice. Currently podcast-only (no written articles for now) after being laid off from Vice, but they’re fully independent now, and as excellent as ever! They know their shit.

“VPN user voting is not allowed.”

Yeah, I can totally see what you mean. I was definitely underwhelmed by Like a Dragon’s graphics. Lately I’ve been a lot more forgiving of old/crappy graphics though, especially with how gripping these stories are.

Finished Yakuza: Like a Dragon a few weeks ago, really liked the vibe. The whole Yakuza collection came up for sale on GOG right after I finished, so I’m going through the whole series now. Almost done with Yakuza 0, and it hasn’t disappointed. The graphics and UI are dated, but it’s easy to get past that. The storytelling is what’s so great about these games. They’re long, complex, and surprisingly thoughtful. Sure there’s a good amount of trite cringeworthy tropes, but that’s part of the fun. Oh and the minigames! Business management is almost as fun as the main game…and I love that you can play classic sega arcade games in-game!