When watching a speed run of Kiwami 2, the speed runner had mentioned muscle soda as one of those items that are part of it. I definitely saw how big of a difference it makes in boss fights, using it myself it really makes fights easier.
As bosses don’t get as much of a chance to fight back, as they’re constantly being pushed back by almost every punch.
Anthem isn’t really doing it for me. There is no Bioware magic in this game. But i will try to finish some more missions until the servers go the way of the dodo.
And i started FF16. This game was hyped to the heavens. But my first two hours were absolutely miserable. Cutscene after (dumb) cutscene with some lame story beats from a wannabe Game of Thrones ripoff. FF15’s opening with pushing a car was super lame but at least it was over in 5 minutes. But this here is something else. When will this game start to be good?
Back to Hollow Knight to cleanse my mind of this crappiness …
The story and characters in my opinion is the best aspect of the game followed by the music.
Tell me when you find out. So I journal and sometimes I’ll write my thoughts on games or movies. For FF16 I just wrote that it feels like playing a cinematic movie… and that’s not a positive. The gameplay feels like it’s missing several beats as an action game. Like it’s trying to be Devil May Cry, but it really isn’t. Traversing the world has been my biggest disappointment. It just feels so empty. Even random monsters are sparse. Then there are SO many cutscenes and bost fights have so many cutscenes and QTEs. It’s a game I only play on the cloud and usually in bed, and I still just get so drained by it. Taking it very slowly myself. I like the idea of it and that’s what’s pushing me to keep playing it, but I’m not even really on board with the story or characters yet. The main character is currently too “woe is me”. Like I get it, but I just don’t find anything about that type of character interesting. I’m enough of a low-self esteem person stuck in my own head in real life; I didn’t pick up a video game to role play as that 
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They doing something wrong if they kill of characters and i chuckle. I cared more for Hopes mum in FF13.
Playing Anthem in 2026 as an adult really makes me aware of why this game failed out the gate. I tried to enjoy it, but it just wasn’t it. The gameplay felt like a pretty boring loop. You have the super unique cool javelin armors (tank, speedy Gonzalez, missionary position (basic)… Okay, maybe not that unique but something) but all you do for the most part is shoot guns at mobs… fun. I chose the storm caller armor this time around and use the inceptor back several years ago when I played on the PS4 with friends. I just wish you could use their unique abilities more and that the armors felt more like a real decision and not just a coat of paint. My favorite moments as the inceptor was using the ultimate or zipping around for melee attacks. The Storm caller powers are really cool (freeze, fire melee, and lightning call), but they have such limited uses and are on such a long cooldown. I felt the same way the very limited amount of time I felt playing Suicide Squad, “I am playing a literal DC comics game with Super villains… why the hell are all the characters just shooting guns most of the time?? Why am I fighting the same boring mobs most of the time with guns?? This is DC and the plot is fighting Brainiac. DC Universe Online had a more fun gameplay loop of doing that.” Wait a minute, if DC just wanted a live service Co-op game… why didn’t they make Suicide Squad a Green Lantern Corps game. Then they could’ve gone ham with the Green Lantern constructs to build out roles. They could’ve even added different lantern corps in for hero like roles. Make the blue lanterns buffers (support role) and star sapphires healers. Oh my god, why didn’t they just do that?? Now I’m doubly disappointed… I have to get off this tangent.
It’s really weird because freaking Overwatch (an actual first person PVP shooter) does a better job of making every “hero” feel unique and fight with their primary abilities and in different roles. Games also match make for one person in every necessary role. Why don’t these PVE hero shooters do the same? Have one tank, two dps, and one healer. Make each of them unique in their PRIMARY attack (don’t just give everyone guns) and balance the game around that. Though that also would exasperate the next problem which is these games being balanced around a squad. I just hate that and for some reason they can’t be bothered to have EVER done the most basic update of an AI NPC squad fill. That’d at least be something. Otherwise playing solo for a game designed as an always online multiplayer is just the worst. It doesn’t help that there’s all the tedious mini-fetch quest stuff like that whole echoes thing and picking up and putting things into things and blah blah blah.
Man this game never stood a chance. The story is also… forgettable and yet chaotic. I don’t know how to explain it. Just, what even is the Anthem of Creation? They frontload the weirdest stuff that I immediately forget and don’t care about, but don’t really invite me into the world. It feels like I’m watching a movie in a different language and subtitles will pop up in English for the things I don’t care to have answered. Also the characters are umm… trying I guess. They all come off as annoying. Including my freelancer. Man that opening sequence really tried hard to make everything seem “epic”. It didn’t work 
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I think had Bioware GENUINELY put time into building a new IP this could’ve been something special, but everything feels a bit like a forced rushed afterthought. The best we get out of it is the flying. Even the customization is just god awful. I remember this too. It’s a live service game so I feel like it was geared at teens, and as a high schooler when I first played years ago… why the hell would I want to buy cosmetics for those minimal customizations. Even the paid stuff didn’t look like much. Everything is just kinda “there”. The hub city is cluttered and messy. The world feels special but missing a spark. Also, what even was the game plan? If this was a success would EA have expanded bioware or would they have dropped DA and Mass Effect for supporting this game with the tons of content updates and expansions it’d have needed to survive the cutthroat live service market? Maybe if they started from scratch and built this as a brand new universe, a single player offline game with an NPC squad of freelancers and optional multiplayer then it’d have been something special. But they’d need to go back to the drawing board on a lot of stuff.
Playing Wolfenstein 2, finishing up Keeper, and Forza Horizon 5. I always sprinkle in a bit of Halo online a week.
Since I completed the main missions in Borderlands 4, I’ve come back to another one that I completed years ago and that’s Starfield. And I’m having such a blast with it, ESPECIALLY with the controller Jess sent me, because I can finally play it with bumpers that fucking WORK!
I’ve been somewhat addicted to Overwatch 2’s Showdown shuffle. I finished the battle pass (and normally that’d mean I’d stop playing until next season), but it’s such a fun and easy mode to jump into. Less stressful than Stadium (which was the other mode that got me back into Overwatch), and quick flashy matches.
I’ve also downloaded DC Universe online. Man, I can’t believe that game is still up and going. I first played it on PC eons ago, then I got it on PS4 to play with some friends (I remember there was a special pack of some kind on PS4), and now on Xbox. What’s crazy is that I keep buying the same quantum powers set. That’s actually why I picked it up (since the currency is on sale right now). It’s just a grinding button masher, but a lot of fun with an addictive loop. I went for two handed and made myself an evil warrior queen training under Circe. Probably never going to make it to the end game though at this rate. I restart too much. Also, I said it in my last comment, but why is it always Brainiac? This game, Injustice 2, suicide Squad. Like shouldn’t Darkseid be the main bad guy in a large roster DC? Or just like… anyone else?
I don’t know what to play. I’m halfway through Lunar, and I started Disgaea 5 and SaGa Scarlet Grace - Ambitions too. I think I need a break from games since I beat Xenoblade 3 and Pokemon Legends Z-A.
