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.

I have very mixed feelings about it. I also adored the art and setting, and I really appreciate the historical research that has gone into making it. And there were some well written characters in there.

But man, the game is sloooooow. The last act in particular was like pulling teeth. Reading is fine when what you’re reading about is interesting. There were so many banal, shallow and uninteresting conversations in there that really tested my patience.

I just played through Pentiment and even on the fastest speed dialogues were painfully slow. It wouldn’t fix all the other pacing issues, but the text popping up instantly would be a huge improvement.

Seeing a lack of a generalized video game meme community, I made one: [email protected]

Even though it’s not only for memes, [email protected] tends to be mostly video game memes right now.

It stopped being a story with unpredictability and actual stakes. There was a time I felt like anyone was at risk, even “main characters”, and it was awesome. It just turned into more of a Sunday morning cartoon - which is fine - it’s just not for me.

I also got sick and tired of them doing the “guess who’s back from the dead?” plotline a bazillion times.

I played for a while and enjoyed it, but eventually it became clear the developers were taking both the story and the gameplay in directions I didn’t like.

Heavensward was a great story, Stormblood patch quests were amazing. Shadowbringers had its very high peaks of course but even there they had started doing things in the story I hated.

I always think of another New Math.

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.

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

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.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I would wait for a bigger sale. The game is fine, the combat is solid and to its credit it’s absolutely beautiful. But at its heart it’s just a very polished Ubisoft open world game. It’s also way too long given how dour the writing is. The story is fine but you can’t maintain interest for 60 hours when everything is delivered in a stoic monotone.

I’m about halfway through Pentiment and I’m not sure what to think of it. There are lots of things I love about it: the art, the characters, the writing (mostly) and the historical research that’s gone into making it. All the running around and back tracking hasn’t been great. The first murder was also very unsatisfying, and it’s only now that I realise that that was the point. And I’m not sure what to think of that. It’s a strange game, with its central message seemingly being how powerless we are in the face of history and how restricted we are in our lives. Or at least people were back then. I’ll probably have to wait until I finish for my full judgement of it though.

I also snagged Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree on the Steam summer sale at 25% off. As a passionate VTM: Bloodlines fan I’ve been waiting for a reason to buy it. I’ve felt obliged to check it out as it was also written by Brian Mitsoda. Plus the game itself looked interesting. I’ve only just started playing it, but I’m enjoying it so far. The writing seems okay (not Bloodlines level) but the presentation is beautiful. I really like the splash art for characters and the cutscenes. It’s a Metroidvania Soulslike with a skill tree inspired by Path of Exile, and I can already tell I’ll have a lot of fun crafting builds here. Probably huge replayability too. The combat has felt solid so far, but I’m only at the beginning.

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.

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.

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