My friends said they wanted to take on the Predator on Ghost Recon Wildlands so take on the Predator we did.
Nioh Nonsense
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.
Read MoreWorld-Building With The Outer Worlds
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.
Read MoreWrestling With Control
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.
Read MoreOn Borderlands 3
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.
Read MoreNo Posts Explanation
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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