Kinda weird how you completely ignored the elephant in the room with the Uncharted PC discussion, which is that they released Uncharted 4 before 1-3. Doesn't make much sense for me to get these games if I have no idea who these characters are and don't know their backstory.
I wouldn't call that the elephant in the room, it's a pretty minor thing, you get enough info about who the characters are in 4 that it doesn't really matter if you've played any previous games or not. There aren't really any plot points that don't make any sense if you haven't played the others.
I think in terms of it not having as much hype as other Sony releases, it's probably just cause it's been a way longer gap between its original release and the PC release compared to the other ports (6 whole years) and this PC version had almost zero fanfare, Sony was completely quiet about it since the first announced then only gave a release date a month before and it came out without that much advertisement, I really only knew when it was coming out because I was going out of my way to check in on the PC port every few weeks.
Yeah i think it's a combination of older game, pretty high price, released with not much marketing in super busy period. It'll probably still sell plenty over time though.
Hot take: Sicario is bad and and Villeneuve is a bad director. Arrival was alright.
Sicario is pretty good but it's not a very pleasant watch. Sicario 2: "what if the war on drugs was actually really badass and cool" is terrible though.
This is going to be very interesting to watch evolve because Jan is reacting to this segment of the game exactly as I did. Within an hour or so I was pretty certain this was going to be one of the best games I'd ever played. Stealthing around this little villages and taking down the mini-bosses is so goddamn fun and visceral.
...And then you realize that this is all just fodder, none of it really matters at all compared to defeating bosses, and suddenly all these fun little encampments become little more than obstacle courses you're supposed to speed run over, around and through on your way to the boss of your choice.
I really wish Sekiro had been way more of this game rather than the sort of game it quickly becomes where there's a boss around damn near every corner and the fodder enemies are essentially a total waste of time. Yes, this is a basic element of every From Soft game, but the combat is also so essentially rudimentary in a Bloodborne or Elden Ring that you can enjoy doing it for the grind without missing it when you need to focus on a boss for actual progression. But even then, if you just want to go clear a fortress or building because you enjoy the enemies or the layout or whatever, when you walk away from it you can also have more health, more strength, more MP, more something other than coins and a vague sense of accomplishment.
By removing the grind element from the game, Sekiro kneecaps the most fun aspect of itself (for me!) and it's such a bummer. I couldn't help but watch this entire video and think to myself, "it's such a shame Jan's completely wasting his time with all this." I enjoyed this village segment so much I would just grind it over and over clearing the enemies trying to build up a speedrun...I wouldn't be surprised if some celestial clock logged four or five hours of playtime for me just looping through this bit over and over. And sure, it was fun as fuck...but it had no impact on the rest of the game at all, and Sekiro doesn't really make that clear until you're actually in the city with bosses waiting in every cardinal direction.
Cant say I really agree.
You still unlock skill points from regular combat, and the fodder and minibosses of an area are often subtly training you for the boss, as their attacks are often more basic versions of that of the bosses. You only start speeding past everything once you've 'completed' an area by beating all the enemies/ picking up all the items/ and have explored everything. I don't think the game loses anything by emphasing player skill over grinding stats.
Hey Jan, I’m going to politely ask that you try to not feel the need to rush in the future, and read those tutorial pop ups.
The ones you skipped during the boss fight at the end of this video introduced 1) the only things you CAN’T parry and 2) how to upgrade your health.
I mean, they really didn’t matter for how you demolished that dude but it will most likely come into play later.
Also on the topic of rushing, this is a different type of combat but it’s still a From Software game when it comes to looking around and finding stuff. Take your time, that’s also the good stuff I’m here for on top of cool swordfighting.
This. Just read everything. It can be tempting to skip stuff to keep the pace up for the audience but all that happens is you lose more time later when you get stuck or lost later on.
Regarding the GOTY roundup: you can easily make a top 100 every year of only very good games if you consider the full breath of games that comes out, glad to see they did bring up some more during the process, it's easy to fall into the IGN school of GOTY discussion where it all revolves around a handful of the biggest AAA games.
Although they lean into ASW for the marketing I think the actual gameplay design in this was mostly done by 8ing.
I kinda agree with Tam in that it even though it looks good it clearly feels more like a side-project that isn't going to stick around longterm unlike something like Guilty Gear Strive.
Also, yeah, now they have another person into fighting games with Tam I'd love to see some more long-form fighting game coverage.
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