-1 The Crew: Motorfest - given I love the Forza Horizon series, when this went on offer on the Ubisoft PC store for £18 with £9 off with the code LEGEND I couldn’t resist…
Hoping to have some completions soon at least!
3 Likes
-1 Super Space Club (Epic freebie)
Looks like a chill twin-stick shooter, perfect for a handheld.
As for completions, I’m currently working mostly on Game Pass, PS+ and the Halo MCC. Slow progress. 
3 Likes
+1 CoD Modern Warfare Remastered
Total = 5
4 Likes
+1 COD Modern Warfare II Remastered
Total = 6
4 Likes
Avowed (Game Pass) +0
When I first started this I was a bit sceptic, coming directly off of a Pillars of Eternity 2 playthrough. Would this feel too casual and small? How will action combat feel? Will this feel like Eora? Will the first person perspective ruin it? Well, turns out none (well, almost none) of those things would be an issue.
It’s certainly not a small game, my only playthrough (so far) took me about 100 hours. Turns out the exploration is bloody excellent (and rewarding!) which led to me naturally exploring every nook and cranny of the maps. There’s lots of side quests, even ones never marked down in the journal, lots of environmental storytelling and it was a real joy to clear all the fog of war.
The main story is very good, and it fits in so well into Eora and it’s lore. I can see how it might be both a little confusing and less impactful if you are not familiar with Eora and its world building though. Having played the Pillars of Eternity games adds so much to the experience, not only of the story but the whole game is elevated in both the big and the small. The main story, and side quests for that matter, is full of very difficult choices with no real right answer but plenty of consequences. It’s very impactful and if you are an immersive gamer like myself it’s heaven (and hell!).
The companions, if fewer than in previous games, are well fleshed out with their own stories and motivations. They feel alive and have a lot of things to say… I’ve seen some complaints about how only two have proper companion quests, but… the others are integrated into the stories and it feels very natural. I think a less game-y state of mind might help some people. There’s also so much banter between them in camp, I found myself just standing there listening to them on several occasions. Really good! ¨
The Living Lands is beutiful! It was a really cool experience coming from the top-down view of PoE and seeing everything from the ground level instead. The environments are varied and the day-night cycle makes areas feel very different, I found myself more than once just taking in the view. I really wished the game had a photomode, I would have taken so many pics. Every game should have one!
Gameplay was also very good, combat felt great and the platforming was fun. Using your companions, and the right companions for different scenarios, was important and worked well. My worries of the first person perspective was solved easily, as the game has a great third person mode! I played most of it like that.
I was a bit sceptic at first about there not being distinct classes, but it worked better than I thought. I do miss the more intricate class builds etc. from the older games, I think it adds a lot and it’s fun trying different things and working within strengths and limitations like that. So, better than I thought but I still prefer the “proper” RPG way. It was a bit too simplified for my taste.
In conclusion, the game is awesome and I had a great time with it. The move to an action game worked well, and it still feels like Eora. Great story, lots of content, meaningful and impactful choices and excellent exploration. A bit limited in the character building department, and the lack of a photo mode is just weird.
I highly recommend it, but I think you should play the Pillars of Eternity games first to get the most out of it. I would score it at a 9/10.
8 Likes
Great review!! Avowed is such a great game and im looking forward to The Outer Worlds 2 later this year!!
3 Likes
Thanks! I like these little mini-reviews, both to gather my own thoughts of a game and to read others.
Avowed really did a lot of things right, especially things I was a bit worried about beforehand like the combat. Never got tired of it, and will do another playthrough sometime in the future where I embrace my dark side and see how that turns out…
Yes, I’m also really looking forward to The Outer Worlds 2! Quite bonkers to get two games like that from Obsidian in the same year. The little I’ve seen from the game in previews looks very promising.
3 Likes
You’re welcome bud.
I loved the combat/gameplay in Avowed as I put it up there with Dying Light 2/Dead Island 2 in terms of first person melee combat. Felt so good to play. Be sure to let us know how that dark side play through turns out.
I agree with The Outer Worlds 2. Looks great and looking forward to the Direct and the game itself later this year.
1 Like
Monday again and time for an update! @Searsy82 climbing 
The Leaderboard:
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@Knottian 19.5
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@MasterLeePhD 14.5
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@Zip 9.5
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@profjjj 9
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@SilentJay76 6.5
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.@ vrinn 4
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.@ Mort 3.5
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.@ AbhorredGunt 0
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@Widey85 -1
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@APOPHIS1989 -5.5
5 Likes
+0 Chants of Sendaar
A short puzzle game revolving around learning different languages. It’s a very unique experience, allowing you to learn the language through conversation, signage, books/notes, and/or drawings.
3 Likes
-1 PO’d Definitive Edition
I have been into boomer shooters recently, and this one is on sale this week. At this point, I just hope to be out of the negatives by the end of the year!
3 Likes
Island Farmer +1
As I usually do between bigger games I’m playing some chill “podcast games” whilst catching up on some listening. This one is a relaxing, easy memory/puzzle game where you reconstruct islands after first seeing how it’s supposed to look and then the blocks are scrambled when you hit “Play”. Nothing special, but a chill game perfect to play along a podcast.
2 Likes
Welp, I did a thing and the thing I did came with a copy of Astro Bot.
-1
6 Likes
Hah, MORE GAMES! MOAAAAR!
1 Like
Don’t forget Astro’s Playroom. Not that im trying to add to your backlog or anything. Hehehe. lol
1 Like
Hah, I’ll finish that before Astro Bot at least.
1 Like
I played and beat Expedition 33 within a week or so of its release. It was fantastic. One of my favorite turn-based rpgs (despite being horrible at parrying).
Since then I have been on a mini-break from gaming. I have been using all my free time to read - a hobby that used to consume me that I have let lapse in the last several years. It has been a great change of pace.
When I get back to gaming in the next week or so I need to finish South of Midnight and start/finish Doom. So, I won’t be making any progress on the backlog for the next couple of weeks at least.
6 Likes
Monday! Not much happening here, looks like the backlogs are winning so far this year. Ah well, here’s the current score:
The Leaderboard:
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@Knottian 19.5
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@MasterLeePhD 14.5
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@Zip 9.5
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@profjjj 9
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@SilentJay76 6.5
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.@ TechWendigo 5
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@vrinn 4
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.@ Mort 3.5
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.@ AbhorredGunt 0
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@Widey85 -1
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@APOPHIS1989 -6.5
6 Likes
+1 - Final Fantasy VII Remake (PC) - I want to start this review off by saying how much I love the FF7 metaverse; it’s easily in the top 10 of my favorite JRPGs, and one of my favorite FF titles (VI is my personal favorite - it was the first FF I fell in love with and beat 100% on SNES… so basically the reason most “journalists” love VII). I was one of those people lined up for the midnight release of the Advent Children DVD, picked up and unironically loved the terrible Dirge of Cerberus, and bought a PSP 2000 specifically for Crisis Core. The original game and its subsequent stories were effectively my identity for a few years…
So, imagine my hype when this was released (in spite of the shitty Sony tactics); I bought the game on the PS4 on day one specifically so I wasn’t going to have my opinion tainted by others. The framerate issues aside, I was falling in love with the mostly beautiful graphics and reimaginations of some of my favorite characters (I do have more to say on the visuals later)… and then I made it to the slums for the first time and the fanfic… I mean “Whispers” showed up. I dropped the game after a few hours and later bought it and Rebirth for super cheap on cdkeys last holiday, hoping to have something to really put my Ally through its paces. Well, I forced myself to get over my narrative qualms and I’m not nearly as high on the remake as most “journalists”.
To begin with, the most important part of a FFVII game in my opinion, its narrative and game flow is filled with more misses than hits. As mentioned previously, the “Whispers” and the entirety of the garbage retelling of the FFVII so far have been about as meaningful and well-written as an average Reddit fanfiction. After beating the game, right after beating Crisis Core Reunion no less, the new writers clearly missed a large part of what made the original special and the theme of altruistic sacrifice is one of its main themes.
Without getting into too many spoilers, the game rewrites entire characters’ deaths, while still having the most poignant intact, and those characters’ deaths were integral to specific characters’ developments and motives. Furthermore, entire characterizations are bastardized - Tifa, while the VA is amazing (Spartan Vale reporting for duty), is turned into an almost helpless woman wholly lacking confidence (not the badass we see in the original) - while others are stuck in arguably racist caricatures - Barrett, if this wasn’t blatantly obvious (and is often the case with how Japanese games treat Black characters).
Additionally, the pacing in the game is atrocious. There are entire sequences where the stakes are immediate and dire, but the developers decided to take completely optional side quests, padded them with meaningless fetch quests/monster hunts, and force them into being almost a necessity because of the limited grinding/battling opportunities (which is terrible because the combat is easily one of the best parts of the game). Don’t even get me started on the absolutely dull and miserably drawn out Shinra rescue in the last two chapters. Finally, the game also ends in a terrible place - even with grinding, I beat the original Midgar section in FF7 recently in less than eight hours, so there’s way too much padding to what is effectively the start of the game in the original.
Technically speaking, I also can’t believe the amount of praise and hand-waiving this received at launch, because there are some elements of the game that are absolutely atrocious (even at max settings on PC - which in itself is a joke). Character models for the main characters look outstanding, and the lighting is solid, but performance on PS4 was terrible and even on PC it’s clearly not well-optimized (running at locked 60 with max settings, but the utilization highlights that). Furthermore, how the NPC models and general geometry/shading was given a pass would be beyond me if it weren’t for the fanboyism rampant in the media.
I did enjoy the combat, and it was almost lovely to revisit FF7 with a modern coat of paint, but I think this game highlights a number of problems with how the media/gamers judge stuff like this. I wanted a FF7 Remake that was true to its original intent and narrative, and I’m far from the only one based on Reddit, but even ignoring that element, it’s quite insane how little the massive narrative changes are mentioned in reviews. More than anything, I think this game highlights how terrible the media is at being objective when it comes to anything with a modicum of nostalgia - all the pacing and narrative issues, performance woes, technical disappointments, etc. are glossed over because these people get to “relive their childhood” with pretty new graphics and music… despite the fact that that “childhood” isn’t close to what they’re getting today. Of course, the elephant in the room being the usual alignment with Sony exclusivity likely also tickling those ad dollars… I mean “personal biases”.
I’m going to force myself through Rebirth and will buy the trilogy when it releases on Xbox, purely to support the cause, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to it at all… especially while I’ve been going through the original simultaneously (it’s just so much better).
6/10
Total = 20.5
2 Likes
That was a good read, thanks! It’s always interesting to get these perspectives on games, I have no relation at all to the original game.
2 Likes