I think Unity is super underrated to be honest. Revolutionary Paris is the best AC city they’ve ever done, and they had such a good idea going with the free run up/down system. It has some of the most stylish parkour in any game of the series and some phenomenal animations. Some of the missions are absolutely amazing too.

On PC it’s apparently even better with the ACUfixes mod, but I haven’t played it personally.

It’s a shame, the music is great and I do love the freshness of the unusual setting. But having seen both some gameplay and some of the writing I just can’t see myself playing it.

I’m deep into Mandragora Whispers of the Witch Tree this week and having a blast. Played about 19 hours and it feels like I’m about half way. The story so far has been serviceable, but I do enjoy the world quite a bit and I also think some of the characters are pretty funny and well written.

Gameplay has been excellent, combat has the right sort of depth to it without being crazy complex and the bosses have been very enjoyable. Good patterns and fun movesets. I’m just now at the second really big story boss and he’s a doozy. As someone who isn’t huge on platforming I am also happy to say the platforming segments aren’t really a big part of the game and have been very easy.

Character customization has been another highlight and making builds is super fun between both the PoE inspired passive tree and choosing which active skills to use and choosing which active skills to upgrade. I’m doing a dual dagger build that dipped almost immediately into the adjacent Chaos Magic tree and while probably not a power gaming choice it is great how flexible the game is in what it allows you to do. Having a lot of fun so far with Chaos Echo and Shadowstep both giving teleports to the range-deficient daggers.

Heavily recommended if you like Souls-likes and/or Metroidvanias!

EDIT: Forgot to mention one thing. I really appreciate this game having difficulty sliders for both Enemy Health and Enemy Damage ranging between 40-160% (default 100). I haven’t used them yet, but knowing you won’t be hard stuck on a boss and worst case can just turn down the difficulty is actually quite nice. Helps my mental.

Bill Hicks evergreen marketing bit is as relevant now as it was in the 80s.

On a related note I wish we had a c/madlads around these parts.

I’ll see if I can hold out for a sale. I’m interested in the Mask of the Betrayer expansion but not as much in the main game.

Love your work as always! I hope your health improves soon ♥️

Pure, unadulterated capitalism and greed finding new and horrifying ways of bleeding the people dry. Colour me unsurprised.

Nice! I gravitate to DEX builds too as it’s just so nice to have bow access. My favourite stylish build is probably dual wielding the Tracers, but that’s basically NG+ only.

Finishing up Pentiment probably later today, and it will be nice to have it over and done with. I will appreciate having played it, but I can’t say actually playing it was all that fun. It’s beautiful, it’s well-researched and it has some interesting plots and characters in it but… god damn is it ever slow. Between the laboriously slow and often banal and uninteresting conversations and the lack of fast travel leading to half your playing time being watching your character slowly waddling across Tassing the game feels like an absolute slog to play.

I’ve been breaking up the tedium with Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. I’ve had my eye on it as it’s written by Bloodlines-writer Brian Mitsoda, and at 25% off on the summer sale I thought why not.

It’s a Metroidvania Soulslike with a skill tree inspired by Path of Exile, and I’m really liking what I’m seeing so far. The combat has been solid, the build diversity seems great and the bosses have been good. The game is beautiful with a lovely art style and the level design is really good too.

From what I’ve seen so far I recommend checking it out if you like these types of games!

What’s your favourite build?

Sure did. I think it was some sort of cryptobro group focused on “growth and monetisation” if I remember right. Named “Chosen” I believe?

I’m not sure I trust Nexus with a picture of my ID, you know. What a fucking mess.

That’s fair. As far as I know the same was true for Chris Roberts. Well, it wasn’t so much that he had a publisher that would edit him as it was that he was fired and Microsoft came in and cobbled together what was there into an actual game (Freelancer).

At least Molyneux has put out some good games. Yeah, they don’t have all the earth shattering features he’s promised, but there’s some good titles in his portfolio. I’m not convinced Star Citizen is a good game.

I have a lifelong friend with Addison’s and it always seemed horrible to have to constantly manage and worry about. And he was fortunate enough to not also have Diabetes!

I adore your posts and will miss them dearly, but please take care of yourself and focus on your health. Don’t push yourself, if I understand right extra stress is particularly bad.

Much love ♥️

As do I, as do I. And still I purchased more only just now.

Enjoy the FNV DLCs! Make sure to play Lonesome Road last, as that is the culmination of the DLC storyline. I recommend starting with Honest Hearts, and then Dead Money and OWB can he played in any order in the middle. I probably prefer OWB first.

Doesn’t RDR2 do the same thing if you die repeatedly in a mission?

I feel like I’m way more critical of Deus Ex than some, but I’m not sure I agree that it doesn’t need mechanical refinements. From gunplay to AI to stealth there is a ton of jank there and I’d hesitate to call any of it modern feeling. Even Warren Spector was aware of this at the time, with that quote about how it’s basically a 7.5/10 FPS, a 7.5/10 stealth game and a 7.5/10 RPG, but its unique selling point is that it’s all those things at once. Personally I think the story, world, atmosphere and concept still hold up incredibly well. The rest could do with modernizing. Not least the voice acting. But I guess with the Mankind Divided sequel being canned I should have limited hopes about a Deus Ex remake getting funding.

The funding bit makes sense, I thought you were referring to something Nightdive-specific, but the post-COVID slump is something we’ve been reading about for some time now. I had hoped SS1 Remake sold enough to merit funding for a full SS2 remake as well, but maybe I need to temper my expectations.

Classic corridor shooters fill this niche pretty well for me, if that kind of on-rails experience is what you’re looking for. I recently played F.E.A.R. and it’s first expansion Extraction Point (don’t play any later expansions or games in the franchise though) and they’re some of the best, tightest and most satisfying FPSes out there. Metro 2033 is also good for this.

If you want a no-nonsense RPG I want to put in a good word for Skald: Against the Black Priory which is very tight and linear with minimal fluff, focused on telling its story and doing a few things well rather than spreading too thin.

I mean, I love Deus Ex but that game could also use a remake if we’re being honest.

That combined with the endless funding faucet shutting off

Oh? I hadn’t heard about this.

Anything of note? I am considering A Plague Tale Collection at 65% off. Dishonored: Complete Collection is also 80% off. I’m considering buying it to replay on PC, I only have it on PS4 and the performance wasn’t great.

Nightdive have said something along the lines of “just because we made a remaster doesn’t mean we won’t also make a remake”. I’m still holding out hope they will.

Feels like a fair review. I’m still holding out hope for a full remake.

I had a similar thought while playing through Skald: Against the Black Priory earlier this year. There is something of a best-of-both-worlds about retro feeling and looking games, but without all the retro clunk.

Two of my favourite games being mentioned? I have been summoned.

Disco Elysium is an absolutely amazing visual novel+. Treat it like a novel whose pages you can read in any order. It doesn’t really behave like a classic RPG, the dialogue options are very un-punishing. Feel free to explore them, feel free to be weird, feel free to commit to wacky ideas. The game rewards that. Lastly: the murder case exists as scaffolding, not purpose. Don’t tunnel vision on it, enjoy exploring the world building, the characters and the protagonist.

If you’re only playing one of those two Fallout games then New Vegas should be a no-brainer, especially if you haven’t played its DLCs. Those are, in my opinion, the very best content New Vegas has to offer and should definitely not be missed. Each DLC is extremely different, and they’re all so good that I can never decide which is my favourite.

I’ve just seen both reactions a lot, and it mirrors my own experience. I played DS1 as my first soulslike and it was completely mind blowing. I’ve seen other streamers have similar experiences. Then I’ve seen lots of people who got introduced to FromSoft through Elden Ring try DS1 and react with “…that’s it?” to all the bosses. It’s an unfortunate reality due to the boss design evolving over time.

It’s a question I ask often in multiplayer titles, because my experience with most of them is that as long as you play with your friends the actual game doesn’t really matter and you could pretty much have a good time goofing off in anything.

There are some exceptions though like Split Fiction.

It’s not really that you won’t have the patience later. It’s more like this: Dark Souls 1 is extremely basic in its boss design. If that’s your first soulslike, it doesn’t matter because you have no frame of reference and you’ll have a great time. Come back to it later and you’ll react with “…that’s it?” to a lot of bosses, which is a shame. This is something I’ve seen a lot from people whose first soulslike was Elden Ring.

The world and level design in Dark Souls 1 is still on an absolute top tier level so skipping it altogether would be sad. Many consider the first half of DS1 to be the best level designs FromSoft has ever done.

It is dated, and the last third of it does suck. In truth it would probably be a good candidate for a remake.

Even then, it is a wonderful game that you can only really enjoy fully if you haven’t played any later soulslike first. To me, that first time experience is worth trying to push for.

It’s a tale as old as time.

I like to try to recommend people who are interested in Souls games to start with Dark Souls 1. If that’s your first soulslike the bosses will still feel epic and it will be a magical experience. If you start with Elden Ring or DS3 and go back to Dark Souls you will get completely underwhelmed.

Between Pyromancy, Zweihander and Poise DS1 is also by far the easiest of the games, even for newcomers.

Don’t expect RDR2-but-cyberpunk (in terms of the open world) and don’t expect a blank slate character RPG: you have some choices for characterization but V will always be V.

If you can get on board with that it’s a great, immersive action game with a good story and some well written characters.

Ah thanks. That’s what I thought.

Outer Wilds at 40% off again. Does it ever get lower? I know I should pay full price because it’s supposed to be a masterpiece but I’m afraid I’ll bounce off it. Also a bit hesitant to play it because I’m afraid it will just give me more existential dread and anxiety and I have too much of that already.

I’m glad you are enjoying it, but I wonder: how much of the enjoyment is inherent to the game and how much is just having a good time with your mates (and would be equally fun in any other co-op game)?

Not surprised. Haven’t we read about Roblox being a predator-filled hellhole for years now?

I will be hesitant until the modding gurus go over the exact implementation. I’ve been burned before about “A-life” in STALKER 2.

Modding support is huge though, as is mutant parts. This is the state it should have shipped in, but my guess from the start was that they really couldn’t afford another delay.

Signed it ages ago when it first came about, and it’s really sad to see it still hasn’t gotten enough signatures.

I have a very hard time seeing any of those competing with either Clair Obscur or Death Stranding 2, apart from maybe Silksong (if it actually ever does come out). But even then I’m not sold.

Mina the Hollower will probably duke it out with Blue Prince for the indie game of the year.