I think I remember Maximilian dood mention that the royal edition is the way to go with ffxv. Suggestion that it’s not worth playing otherwise, but I played through the original and had blast. Specially after I got chocobos and just ignored the car for 90% of the game.
With the exception of a single optional side mission boss, who had me stubbornly fighting him for 6 hours. Because I refused to just stop and see how to fight it, or what I needed.
Thanks for the tip. I will look into the Royal Edition upgrade to see what all it adds. I’m only 12 hours in, so I imagine I could still get value out of it.
Right now I’m just wandering around the map and having fun uncovering points of interests and knocking out quests/bounties.
Just finished India Jones and The Great Circle, it was a pretty fun experience with some fantastic levels, just the amount of time I spent on the boat felt a little long.
Completed Visions of Mana.
About 50 total hours played. Played on normal difficulty. Didn’t do everything though as the game is bigger, longer and has more content than you would think that it would have.
Visually, the game looked excellent and I love the art style and the lush environments. Only negative would be the pop-in of NPC’s, enemies and the environment at times. Otherwise, a pleasure to look at.
Audio was great. I actually liked all the voice acting and the sound effects were really good. Music is very good for the most part. Only negative would be at times, the characters lips wouldn’t move during cut scenes in game while at other times, they would. Minor issue though.
Gameplay and combat is good but I wasn’t into the vessel/elemental setup at all. Didn’t like the abilities with all the sigils you get throughout the entire game. It becomes too much. I would have preferred a much simpler combat/upgrading system. Too many times, the vessels would be the same weapon that I didn’t want to you. Also, there was some camera issues at times where I just couldn’t get it exactly the way I wanted it. The on screen effects become a little too much and not being to turn off damage numbers didn’t help. There’s platforming and a lot of cool stuff in the game due to the elemental setup in general but I wasn’t a fan of it for combat. The last issue was at times during boss battles, you would try to heal or revive yourself or an ally but yet, it wouldn’t register. So many times I had to slam down the A button just to hope that it would go through. The exploration though is pretty good. Side quests are generic fetch quests for the most part to where I stopped doing them after a while. The ruins were pretty good and the dungeons were solid.
Story and characters for me was more of a highlight than the gameplay/combat. I really enjoyed it all. I wasn’t happy with one aspect in the first half of the game and I wish they did a different ending but that’s more of a personal preference than anything.
Overall, a great game. Despite the negatives I listed, I still wanted to keep playing the game. Would have went for 100% completion but doing so would take up the second week of my vacation and I really want to get through my next game which will be Star Wars Outlaws via Ubisoft+ this coming Monday and the weekend is NFL playoff time.
Going through the RE series (for my wife and to go through versions never completed from my backlog) and Crysis 2 Remastered (loved this game on 360).
I decided to take a crack at a bunch of achievements I had never gotten in Halo MCC so have been playing a bunch of random things in that.
I really like how Yakuza 3 has these slow moments when Kiryu manages the orphanage and takes care of the children and their problems. Nice change of pace. Okinawa is also a good location. Only the Kojima-esk cutscene in the middle of the game dragged it down, i almost fell asleep. Holy sh** was that bad.
right now: 0 > Kiawmi 2 > 3 > 7 >>> Kiwami 1
Just finished a playthrough of Slay the Princess - The Prestige Cut in Xbox. I thought it was a pretty good game, the voice acting was being just 2 people really helped homed in on the story as convoluted as it was.
The ending I got gave me the achievement our song as it wasn’t the good ending and if I ever choose to. I have 38 achievements I can go after, but honestly I think this ending was for the best. As the Narrators overall plan and motivations seemed foolishly to me.
Edit: Now starting Genshin Impact!
Been playing POE2 pretty much nonstop since it came out but taking a break until the next patch. Started playing Diablo 2R until then
Struggling to finish Final Fantasy XVI, it’s not a bad game by any means, its main quests are thrilling, great music, acting is great. It’s making me want to actually write a review to sort my feelings on it which is more than I can say for most games I play.
Don’t know what will grab my attention next there are so many games to play especially 100hr long RPGs.
Started up a new Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough on PC after buying Phantom Liberty on sale. Time to say goodbye to another 100+ hours of my life 
I forgot how good this game was and with all the updates since last time I played it’s been turned up to 11!
Dragon Age: Veilguard
Completed Star Wars Outlaws (40 hours) base game via Ubisoft+ on Xbox Series X.
Visually, the game is stunning. Ubisoft always makes gorgeous worlds to explore and Outlaws is no exception. All the worlds look great and my favorite one is later on in the game. Audio wise, music is Star Wars but some original music here and there. Sound effects are really good and voice acting is great in my opinion. The title screen even uses a remix of the music from AC IV Black Flag. Story and characters were good. Overall, I enjoyed it as it kept me invested and interested the entire time.
Gameplay and combat would be where my issues are. The shooting feels fine but not a fan of the brokers and being connected to abilities. Would have preferred a skill tree instead as some stuff im just not doing in order to unlock them or the next level on the abilities. The platforming is really good and reminded me of Jedi Survivor which is a good thing. The puzzles are solid/fine. The stealth is passable and the melee combat is hilarious due to seeing Kay punch out storm troopers wearing a helmet with her bare fists.
Biggest issue for me would be that I simply prefer the old school Ubisoft formula of climbing a tower or viewpoint to unlock everything on the map and instead of looking for stuff which I hate doing because instead, I could actually be playing the actual content in that time. Having to listen to conversations or this or that to get side quests and whatnot got tiresome real quick. I stopped doing the side content halfway through the base game unless required.
Ship combat looks great but is basic and generic. Nothing special. I will say that having no loading screens is cool and unless you fast travel or die, there aren’t any which is appreciated. My biggest issue with the ship combat is similar to when on the ground, the objectives you need to complete at times aren’t on the radar so you can’t just waypoint them which is annoying.
I also completed the Wild Card expansion earlier today. Rated it a good 7.0/10. It’s more Outlaws. Story is too short in my opinion and the part that I was enjoying the most gets interrupted by a cut scene that advances the story. Won’t say anymore than that.
Tomorrow, I will be trying out Skull and Bones since I have Ubisoft+ until the 10th of February. I just gotta try out this game. lol
I kind of get that, a lot of times I go unlock all the fast travel points first and then start playing the game. It sounds like the new AC isn’t going to do it this way either which I would have preferred as well, but will have to see as I’m very much looking forward to that otherwise.
Shadows will include a “guided” mode like Odyssey which should be a lot closer to the older Ubisoft style of open world games. Looking forward to watching the previews after work on Thursday and one of the YouTubers I follow (JorRaptor) is live streaming the first few hours of the game or something like that and will be taking questions from the live chat so im hoping I get more info from that and the previews in general.
There’s already two things that are already a step back for me personally - eliminating the eagle and using that vision sense which I have hated since Batman Arkham Asylum games and you can no longer free climb like in Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla. I’m someone that believes that these open world games like AC or Horizon or even Far Cry and others should have free climbing. I don’t care if it’s not realistic. So many open world games that I play that don’t have that always feels like a few steps backwards because once you’re able to free climb, that’s it, you don’t want to go back looking for grapple points or ledges that you can grab onto.
One thing is certain - I am expecting to like/enjoy Shadows more than Valhalla and much more than Mirage so if this actually happens for me, I will have at least this positive to look forward to.
It really is a stunning game, i often wonder how many have missed out on this game due to the early issues.
Playing Ninja Gaiden II Black remake on Xbox Series X via Game Pass. Playing on normal difficulty. Have died only once thus far which was on a boss fight but defeated him the second time. Currently on chapter 7. Overall, the game is really good but the camera is bad. Even with all of the options off, it still resets itself and always goes in a position that I don’t want it to be in. Don’t like that the dodging is the same button as the block/defend button. Game should have had a lock on system as well. Combat is good and definitely brutal. Story is good thus far. Game looks really good and the audio is solid. Really hoping that Ninja Gaiden 4 solves the issues I mentioned above.
Kicked off Indy this morning in Cinematic mode, omfg ! How good is this, feel like i am in Indy’s mind, this is extremely on point so far.
Retired (dropped) Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Had enough of the horrible camera, not really into remasters and with Ninja Gaiden 4 later this year, not much point in continuing it. Also tried out and retired Sniper Elite Resistance. Played through the first two missions and it’s fine. Really hoping that Atomfall is different and more action oriented. At this point, im just waiting for Avowed.
Eternal Strands has its hooks in me and I’m taking my sweet time with it. Planning to finish it before Avowed releases.