I played Call of Pripyat quite a few years ago at this point, but never got around to Shadow of Chernobyl. It sits in the “I’ll play that eventually” pile. Definitely took me a couple tries’ worth of getting insta-headshotted by guys to figure out what was going on. That atmosphere is palpable though.
So I picked up Pathfinder Kingmaker when it was free on Epic, but it sounds like I should maybe just get Wrath of the Righteous? Either way, it seems like something I would be into.
Hearing that Deathloop is disappointing (from you and other places) has me bummed out. Prey 2017 was awesome so I was really looking forward to Deathloop , especially since I finally got a PS5. I never got around to Mooncrash and I should probably just do that.
Anyhoo nice list! Cruelty Squad is dope and it sounds like I should check out Necromunda.
We had Turok 2 when I was a wee lad and watching my dad play it is one of my first video game memories… probably not really appropriate for a very young child to be watching in retrospect! But hey, I turned out fine I guess. Thanks for being a cool dad, dad.
Anyway, I’ve vaguely thought about giving the remaster a shot since by the time I played the original myself (also at far too young an age) I only ever played it with cheats. I think the backtracking confused my young brain as well. I’m curious to see how it holds up playing it for real.
We also got Turok 3 and I’m pretty sure I beat that at some point. I think we liked Turok 2 more though.
Also I am pro-Painkiller and think that game is dope. Nice blog!
I remember I watched my neighbor friend play Nox at his house one time when I was a wee lad. I always kinda wanted to check it out, since I’ve never heard it referenced or talked about ever until right now.
I'm glad you went through the DLC at the start of this one, since having only put a few hours into the tutorial so far, I was definitely intimidated by how much DLC there was and trying to figure out what I did and didn't have.
Anyway, nice blog! I really want to play more of this; it definitely seems like there's a lot to chew on.
At the risk of talking about more Kingdom Hearts, I decided I was going to embark on my own “play all the Kingdom Hearts” journey earlier this year, since I loved 1 and 2 as a kid but completely stopped paying attention to the series after that. That project ended up fizzling out after I replayed 2, and I feel like part of the reason is that 2 actually wraps up fairly well?
(Spoilers I guess, but) you beat the new bad guy, you find Mickey Mouse, you find Riku, the stuff with Roxas and Namine seems sorted out, and it is ends on just a “There could probably be more adventures, maybe!” note. On top of not really liking them as much as I remembered (I found 2 to still be fun, but straight-up did not enjoy 1 at all), I didn’t feel especially compelled to keep going. I’ve also never been able to get a good read on the quality of the other games, like BBS and Dream Drop Distance. I’ve seen everything from “they suck” to “they’re good,” so I dunno.
Whoops, I talked about Kingdom Hearts! Anyway, nice list.
Cool list! Dusk is awesome; it’s a shame it didn’t resonate with the site staff, since “retro FPS that’s like Quake” seems like something they would be way into.
System Shock 2 is also cool. I need to play Danganronpa 2 and 3 at some point.
My only experience with Total War is Shogun 2. I remember liking the top-level strategy and government stuff, but not really ‘getting’ the actual combat parts (by which I mean I was bad at it). Based off your description of it, I’d be willing to give Warhammer 2 a shot. Nice list!
(Also Trails in the Sky is dope and you should totally play it)
I feel like Octopath Traveler is the kind of game where you can really burn out on it depending on how you approach it, since I felt it starting to happen to me. I started out wanting to do everyone’s chapter 1, then everyone’s chapter 2, and so on, but I felt myself losing a lot of motivation since it was basically 10 hours of introductions, then another 10-12 hours of rising actions without a ton happening. I’m at the point now where I figure I’ll just mainline the stories of my ‘main’ party, since it seems like that’ll be more interesting.
Other than the problems you (and everyone else, it seems) touched on, it’s been really great so far. It looks amazing, the music’s great, and the combat and job system stuff is really fun. It’s made me realize I really oughta play FFV at some point, considering how much I like the job system.
Which character(s) ended up being your favorite? I think Primrose’s story is the one I’m most interested in at this point, along with Olberic’s. I’d be interested to see who other people gravitated toward.
I just bought Tales of Symphonia on the Steam sale, so I after I play that, I could theoretically play this if my interest is piqued enough... that probably won’t happen though.
I’ve never done much of the “deliberately playing bad/questionable games” thing, although it’s always interested me a little. I always get to thinking of the million other actually good games I could play and lose interest in that idea, though I imagine you gain more of an appreciation for the really good stuff when you go out of your way to see the not-so-good stuff.
I started going down the Tales hole myself over the past year, having played Xillia and Berseria and generally liking both. Xillia felt pretty... straightforward, I guess I would say, but it worked well enough as a first Tales game for me.
Speaking of good casts, I found Berseria’s to be pretty great: they all have really great chemistry, and I found some of their skits and interactions to be genuinely pretty funny at points. It was far and away my favorite part of that game, and honestly one of the better casts I’ve seen in a JRPG (not like I’ve played a ton or anything).
My biggest bone to pick with the combat in both games is that it felt like the combat arena just needed to be bigger, or something. I never felt like I had a ton of room to maneuver or anything, and it made the combat feel kinda mash-y and messy at times. Maybe I’m just a crazy person who likes turn-based combat.
Still, I’d be down for more Tales games; I’d like to play Symphonia or Vesperia at some point and find out how ‘top-tier’ Tales compares to my experience, especially after reading this.
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