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Nioh Nonsense

Nioh Nonsense

Posted by on Feb 8, 2020 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

Got back into Nioh after playing online with a friend of mine. It was my first time to do a coop session and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was very dissatisfied with my weapon choice by the end though, so I thought about resolving that over the next couple of days.

Maybe it was a coincidence, but I’ve been watching speedrunning archives lately so I looked and found a speedrun for Nioh. The weapon of choice? Dual swords. They’ve been nothing but amazing so far. Using them made Nioh feel like a different game, enough to make me think that maybe I’ve been playing it wrong the whole time.

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World-Building With The Outer Worlds

World-Building With The Outer Worlds

Posted by on Jan 29, 2020 in Commentary, featured |

The Outer Worlds will feel familiar to anyone who has played a first-person RPG. It feels a mix of Fallout and Skyrim; its got a Borderlands vibe going for it with its space western frontier setting. What sets it apart is the care that’s been given to the writing. There is a narrative quality in The Outer Worlds that makes it stand out, that even though it has a touch of familiarity, the journey is still a fresh and welcome one.

A big part of that quality is the world-building. The game is set in a future where humanity has begun colonizing planets at the edge of the galaxy. What is that future like? How do people live their lives? The Outer Worlds takes great care in answering those questions through its visuals, dialog and story. It presents its setting and characters in a believable manner. Homes, shops, factories and businesses look lived in and used. People are hungry, angry, bitter, fearful, hopeful, funny; the gamut of emotions vary, and learning how life is lived in the setting is part of the game’s appeal.

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Wrestling With Control

Wrestling With Control

Posted by on Nov 14, 2019 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

I finally got around to playing Control over the weekend. I’ve had it for a while now but put it on the back burner because I heard it was a short game. What I heard turned out to be right, but it’s the kind of thing that gets one thinking even after finishing it.

Control is an action game that feels like it’s set in an episode of the X-Files. There’s a lot of weirdness going on and a lot of it is unexplained. And even when the game explains things there’s still some afterthought required to process the information. I think I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let me talk about the action part first. Control is a third-person shooter. The player takes on the role of Jesse Faden, a girl in search of her brother. Gameplay consists of shooting and platforming. Jesse is armed with a gun that changes forms: one minute it’s a handgun, the next it’s a rocket launcher. All of the forms have some sort of utility over the different enemies and environments in the game, but I definitely found myself playing favorites with a few of them.

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On Borderlands 3

On Borderlands 3

Posted by on Nov 8, 2019 in Commentary, featured |

I started Borderlands 3 with Amara, the Siren. Having played most of the previous game with Maya—BL2’s Siren—I thought it would be a natural progression. At some point around level 10 or 11 I began to find gameplay difficult so I stopped and tried Zane, the Operative.

Things became even more difficult.

So I stopped and thought for a second. One of the things that was getting in the way was ammo. What I never liked about the Borderlands series as a whole is that I always seemed to run out of bullets. Ammo, like all loot, is generated randomly, so getting lucky with finding a good gun feels useless when I don’t have anything to shoot it with.

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No Posts Explanation

Posted by on Aug 8, 2018 in Commentary |

I haven’t been writing because it’s been tough to find the time for it. I recently relocated so rebuilding my life has been the primary focus. Now that things are a bit more stable I can write again.

Divinity Original Sin 2 is the first game that captured my attention since I moved. The main plot is more about how the series defines divinity instead of a full-blown sequel of the first game. There are also subplots with the recruitable NPCs so it’s got plenty of content for the lore-hungry players out there. They revamped combat with the addition of physical and magical armor that sit on top of health points, making fighting a bit more challenging since most status effects won’t do anything unless armor is depleted first. A word to the wise: the game heavily favors physical damage so if you’re looking for an easier time, make sure to follow that route.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen came next. I played some of it on PS4 but the load times there were horrible so I tried it out on PC. It was certainly a more pleasant experience playing it there. I actually managed to finish the game.

After that I tried to get back into the PS4. I finally bought Shadow of War and Dragon’s Crown Pro. I tried playing the former on Nemesis difficulty, which is a notch tougher than normal difficulty, but ultimately concluded that it wasn’t for me. The game does a lot of cheap things to make things tougher and as much as I tried to power through it at some point it felt like it wasn’t worth it. Now, I know it’s not a Souls game, but when things are still difficult after 30 hours of playing, it might be a good idea to tone things down a bit.

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On Monster Hunter World

On Monster Hunter World

Posted by on Apr 5, 2018 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

Monster Hunter World is my third attempt at getting into the Monster Hunter series. The first two were on handhelds, the PSP and the 3DS. I couldn’t get into them because I struggled with the camera controls. I also felt that the series wasn’t noob-friendly, so it was pretty discouraging. In fact, for years I fostered the belief that the cycle of mission-based games—get a mission, complete the mission, get another mission, repeat—wasn’t for me. I thought it was the reason why I didn’t finish MGS V, Freedom Wars and the like. Who knows? Maybe it’s still not.

Monster Hunter World is a good argument against it though. It’s certainly more accessible than the previous versions I played, which is good. It’s also great to hear that series veterans aren’t turned away by it. In gaming, making something more accessible to newcomers usually means watering down complex gameplay mechanics, the same mechanics that series veterans expect and love. MHW managed to strike a balance, a rare feat in modern gaming design.

So what’s it like being a noob in Monster Hunter? Challenging—sometimes to the point of frustration—yet rewarding and ultimately fun. It took a second character and around 200 hours to get to the point of feeling like I know what I’m doing, and even then I still feel like an idiot when I get my ass handed to me. A key thing that MHW does masterfully is how it delivers progression. The raised difficulty of each new monster feels just right, that the challenges presented are tough but fair. I will say this though: the game requires a lot of investment. I don’t recommend it for anyone not willing to put in the time and effort.

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