And these are the days that remind me being an older gamer with limited time can kind suck.

I am definitely very often on the border between frustration and enjoyment when playing this game. And that’s even just playing on Normal difficulty.

It’s definitely a game that is split in three parts: one part roguelite resource management and house-building, one part puzzles and one part detective game about putting together the narrative and lore. And I can absolutely see how it is frustrating if you don’t enjoy all three aspects. Which is a shame because some of the puzzles are really great puzzles.

Conservatory can only be drafted on the corners of the manor, and it’s an Unusual room I believe. Helps trying to put stuff like Solarium and Greenhouse on the board before opening a corner room to maximise your chances.

But in the end if you’re not having fun then you’re not having fun. Better play something else then.

Well, it looks like you have a pretty solid list of tasks to work on. Have you been back to room 46? That should be on your list as well.

You do get RNG control eventually, but like everything in Blue Prince it’s locked behind a puzzle. Well, that and certain room upgrades like taking any upgrade that gives you +2 Dice.

It takes some time, but you have tools to mould the house however you want. However, RNG is definitely a factor there is no denying that. In the beginning though I didn’t mind so much as there are so many mysteries to investigate that no run ever feels “dead” - you always learn something or progress somewhere. It’s mostly towards the end where it can get frustrating as you’re looking for for example specific room combinations, but as I said - by then you have the tools to control it somewhat.

I also never really got frustrated because there is no time limit and no penalty to calling it a day. If a run doesn’t work out it’s so quick and easy to just go again.

It’ll be all over the Game Awards this year, I think. It’s sold 2 million copies for a reason. Absolutely gorgeous music too. Heavily recommended!

For the first week in almost a month I’m taking a break from Blue Prince. I’m still enamored with it and am watching a couple or let’s plays of it still, but I’m now at the very end-endgame and I have probably only the final puzzle left and I’m stumped. My brain is fried and I’m taking a breather and hoping my sister and her fiancé catch up to me so we can all have a crack at the last puzzle together potentially.

In the meantime I’m continuing my extremely impatient gaming by jumping on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I promise I will get back to my backlog soon and do this sub justice. I have F.E.A.R. installed and everything.

Anyway, Clair Obscur is amazingly good. Actually worth paying full price for and I don’t mind supporting small developers either. Could this be the best AA game of all time? I honestly can’t believe a small studio pulled this off. The gameplay feels like a fresh take on turn based while still giving Souls-like satisfaction at beating a tough boss. The story has been stellar so far and the voice acting is phenomenal. I’m playing with French VAs because it just feels right for this game and this setting. If you don’t mind reading subtitles I highly recommend it, the french voices are fantastic and Maelle in particular is stealing the show. I actually prefer her to the English one.

Will the Larry games still be up on GOG I wonder? I’ve played the (remake of the) first one and have been curious about Love For Sail as well as it’s apparently the best one (?). For better or worse they are iconic games that are part of the cultural landscape of gaming.

I don’t really think it’s a matter of perspective. These sites all omit the title of whatever thing it is they’re talking about so you have to click through to find out. They do it because research has shown it works to increase clicks. That is well within the definition of clickbait.

I’m extremely happy with my Fractal North and think it’s the prettiest PC case I’ve ever seen, at least that’s available off the shelves.

Makes sense to be honest. It was never intended to be as publicly available as it is at this point in time in the first place. Their hand just got forced by the leak last summer. It’s logical that the real testing is still happening in small scale with trusted people behind closed doors.

This is the way to go for sure. Actually sounds like a really interesting setup for a game.

I’m not even a huge platformer guy, but Rayman Legends is absolute peak and a fantastic, chill co-op game. The music levels in particular - where the already great soundtrack is synced in time to your jumps and hits - are incredibly satisfying and so well made.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t suggest Blue Prince. It’s not co-op per se as it’d only be one person at a time “driving”, but the game is about puzzle solving so who holds the controller doesn’t really matter. It’s a fantastic game if you enjoy puzzles and escape rooms. My sister isn’t even a gamer at all but I recommended it to her fiancé and they’ve been playing together and even she’s been enjoying it a lot. From my own experience playing it on my own I also think it would be much more fun if playing alongside someone else. I’ve often missed having someone to bounce ideas off when stuck.

I feel like Lost Records: Bloom & Rage that came out recently might be a candidate? I haven’t played it myself because I don’t think I’m the target audience but it seems like sort of what you’re looking for?

FF7 was the slam dunk choice because it is not only so iconic, but as the first 3D entry the original is also absolutely god-fucking butt ugly. I can see why FF8 would be logical in a sense, but I’m not sure it has the popularity to capitalise on. It has its charm but it’s hardly most people’s favourite Final Fantasy. It would be a cool choice though.

I don’t necessarily think any of the other entries need remakes as badly. I think FF6 is absolute peak as it is but it would probably be most likely in my opinion. It is also vastly popular and iconic so there is a lot of money to be made there. And I can’t deny that even I would be curious to see what it would be like if given the full remake treatment.

I mean I am all for criticising creatively bankrupt mush like Ubisoft et al pushes out and Call of Duty 420: Black Ops 69 or FIFA or whatever but we can’t pretend there are literally no good games being released nowadays either. Just now we had a month with both Blue Prince and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being released within weeks of each other. BG3 and Alan Wake 2 releasing in the same year was just two years ago.

There are plenty of not just good but great recent games.

I just spot interesting projects and creations others create and then just write my own thoughts on them

Soo… journalism?

In any case, do whatever makes you happy, whether remaining solely on here or creating your own thing from this like a website or blog. Your content is among the best on the platform and I hope you know how much we all appreciate you.

Story wise though, i’m a bit mixed on. I’m really liking the story, just not as a Max Payne story. The Brazil setting isn’t really doing it for me and it feels a bit more GTA Coded than Noir, at least until i detach it from the first two games.

This is pretty much the general consensus of the game overall I think. Good game, just not a good Max Payne game.

Even though I don’t think there should be a cap these days, 60 FPS is at least perfectly palatable. 30 FPS really is not, and it’s particularly jarring if gameplay is not capped but cutscenes are.

Had no idea there was a 30 FPS cap in cutscenes. In this day and age, really?

Look Ubisoft: this is what your devs could be making if you’d let them make what they want to be making. Instead of churning out another cookie cutter “Ubisoft game”.

Throw in some MMM and Deadly Reflex and we’re cooking with gas!

Unfucking the leveled lists and automatic leveling or everything in general was one of the first things modders did back when the original Oblivion released as well. Appropriately nostalgic perhaps that it still needs to be done in the remaster too.

Yeah GoT quickly turned from a fun game I enjoyed to a game I almost loathed and resented as I had to force myself to finish it.

It really doesn’t have enough variety to support being that long, in my opinion. The mission design is way too bland and samey and the tone of the writing just starts wearing you down. Literally everything is the same serious tone delivered in a dour monotone. A handful of moments with Kenji is not enough to break the tedium. It would be fine if the game was 20 hours long, not 60.

I still think it’s a fine sort of 7.5-8/10 at the end of the day but I consider it one of the most overrated games of all time. It’s just a polished Ubisoft collect-a-thon open world with solid combat at the end of the day. It’s not game of the decade or whatever.

I feel like it’s morally correct to pirate Nintendo games at this point.

Nintendo is not getting another red cent from me until the day I die.

It sadly can’t replace all the other things Discord does, but if all you want is low-latency VOIP with good sound quality - Mumble’s your man.

This is certainly a game that is best played blind. Peeling back the mysteries is so rewarding and there is a lot more under the surface than you think at first.

I don’t think there are many puzzles relying on foreknowledge. Most of the puzzles also have clues to be found later, sometimes clues leading to other clues, so if you can’t find a solution to something right away I recommend just moving on for the moment and coming back later, doing other puzzles and investigations in the meantime. Exploring and figuring things out, both in terms of puzzles but also narrative is the whole game so just take it slow. You’re not meant to solve everything in one run, but gradually learning and making progress over time. Contrary to what the intro video suggests there is no time limit, so there is no rush.

Also: take notes. I have filled out like 30 pages of notes at this point. This is a very satisfying game to take notes of, making connections and spotting details.

This is one of those rare Obra Dinn/Outer Wilds type games that only pops up once every couple of years. If you’re into that sort of thing you should absolutely jump on it right away, it’s spectacular.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely does this make it that old Oblivion mods will eventually become compatible with the remaster?

I suppose I will use the same “supporting indie devs is a good deed” justification as when I purchased Blue Prince on launch day for this game.

La Belle Epoque inspired game that is reviewing at 92/100 on OpenCritic with several mentions of it being a GOTY contender? And the themes are about wrestling with hope and optimism in the face of nihilism and hopelessness? (Disco Elysium my beloved)

I never stood a chance.

Ubisoft made a fun game, but it’s way to big for it’s own good.

Well, everyone expected this game to copy Ghost of Tsushima, so maybe it’s not surprising that it ends up copying its biggest flaw as well.

Still wrestling with Blue Prince and still as enthralled with it as I was last week. It’s such a clever, beautiful, unique and interesting game.

I’m finally starting to glimpse the finish line at the horizon now after having been in the endgame for about a week. Still a couple of puzzles left to solve, still a couple of unanswered questions left to investigate but I can feel how close I am now.

God damn it am I going to miss this game once it’s over. Experiences like this don’t come around often. If you like puzzles and mysteries and escape rooms be impatient for once and play this game. It’s extraordinary.

I’m a slut for La Belle Epoque so even though I’m not necessarily in the market for a JRPG at the moment I might just cave anyway with scores like this.

I’m almost done with Blue Prince too, so it’s fortuitous timing.

As a fellow Blue Prince addict I will take any chance to recommend others to join my obsession. Game is absolutely wonderful and everyone should play it!

My first thought as well. Good old times of triple boxing spy alts and whatnot. I still miss it sometimes.

God damn it my backlog is already long enough why’d they have to go ahead and do this.

Sigh

Now where’s my credit card?

I think this criticism is fair to be honest and is one of the things that’s sort of swept under the rug a bit in discourse about Witcher 3. I definitely think the pacing is off just as you mentioned. I’ve heard other people regret their choice of Triss because they had basically locked in her romance already by the time you start doing stuff in Skellige with Yen and start seeing what she’s like.

Personally I think the Yen/Geralt dynamic is a lot better than with Triss, although it’s got its own troubles (nobody is perfect). I like the banter between them and they feel more like a proper couple.

The game as a whole also flows better with Yen as your romance choice in my opinion and to me it feels more like the Triss romance is an afterthought yes. A bone thrown at those who desperately can’t stand Yen.

Geralt (in the books) is deeply in love with Yen and is also bound to her by literal Djinn magic, so it makes sense that he’s always hot for her in the game and I think the attention paid to the Yen side of things is a desire by CDPR to anchor their game in the preexisting lore.

If you’re not dead set on Triss or wildly opposed to Yen I’d say go with it and do the Yen romance. It’s very suitable for a first time playthrough imo.

The hidden depths and secrets are just completely insane. I’m loving piecing together the narrative, but every time I think I have seen (though not completed!) all the puzzles a new hidden layer opens up with new objectives and challenges.

Amazing game!

Bioshock meets Cuphead looks a lot better than the last trailer did. Keeping an eye on this one for sure.

I’m sure the remake will release with the same level of QA and polish that the original Oblivion shipped with. That renowned Bethesda standard of quality.

I never said it was a great game. In fact I literally said:

Genshin has a lot of other problems even gacha aside

I just said it wasn’t garbage. There is plenty of other actual garbage out there. It looks and plays like a mobile game because it is a mobile game. It’s a mobile game you can play on your PC if you want. But it’s still a 5-year-old mobile game. Expecting it to look like AC Shadows or something is silly. Besides, the BOTW-ripoff-meets-anime art direction really seems to appeal to a lot of people, and art direction is much more important than graphical fidelity anyway.

The soundtrack and score is genuinely very good and varied, with each area having its own feel and sound to the music. The game is huge and has lots of different areas to explore, each with its own characteristics. The world has lots of little details and puzzles, some that are extremely simple dopamine hits and some puzzles that are somewhat challenging. There is like a hundred hours or whatever of story content to go through that at least quite a lot of people seem invested and engaged in. There are new events every month or so with various things to do.

Let be clear: I don’t like Genshin personally. I don’t play Genshin. I think there are a lot of problematic elements in it not just with monetisation but with grind, RNG, retention/addiction mechanics, unskippable cutscenes and probably more I’m forgetting off hand.

It’s still blatantly unfair to call it “garbage”.