What are you currently playing?

So I've been playing A LOT of Story Of Seasons Pioneers Of Olive Town the past week and I am totally hooked on the game! I just can't get enough of it! All my free time has gone towards playing it. There was one day where I even stayed up until 3 AM because I just didn't want to stop - I can't remember the last time I ever did that!
There are many ways this game has improved upon past titles - but there are also many changes that I feel bring the game down a bit or that other games did better. I've been setting goals for my farm to keep my interest going as I've accomplished quite a bit in just the week I've played.

I'm also really happy that these games are embracing same-sex romance options! I went into this game with three options in mind but I think I always knew my heart belonged to this amazing man right here.



It just made me so happy seeing other characters acknowledge that we were a couple through heart events and dialogue! These characters seem to have more depth to them than in past titles which is also a nice bonus! Not RPG/BioWare levels of depth but enough to make you fall for them! It made me so happy every time I triggered a new event with Ralph and when we finally got married!

I also picked up Friends Of Mineral Town but it will probably be a while before I actually play that one - although I am looking forward to playing it and seeing how it's changed since the original and FINALLY being able to officially marry the guy I always wanted but couldn't have on the GameBoy!

I recently finished Remnant: From the Ashes. A dark souls-esque game which was way out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed it though it did have its problems (like the first boss and final boss just beating my butt for over an hour each) but it was still kinda fun and I liked the story though toward the end the story did feel very unfinished sadly. But I got a (mutated) dog summon in it and that thing carried my butt through many hours.

Now I've started Outriders just to see whatever slither of story it has. Before both of these I was replaying ME:A but I kinda lost momentum and interest once I'd finished Kadara. It's just such a long slog between finishing that and getting to the end of the game for the tiny bit of extra romantic content.

I ended up refunding it. The janky face animations, the heteronormative weirdness in the first five minutes combined with cutscenes that just shook and made me feel sick put me off entirely. I later found out I could have made the cutscenes less shaky but by that point I was already annoyed enough by the game to refund it. The CC was truly abysmal though.

Yeah like we literally just landed on this new planet and some dude is talking about me settling down and having a family and in the next moment I'm getting overly friendly with a female npc.  I didn't even make it past finding the first probe and the dude getting goo in his mouth with a storm coming because I couldn't take the screen shake. The weird angry macho stuff just felt weirdly non fitting given the storyline at that time, it was odd. As for the CC the eyes were so small/squinty that honest to god all the eye colours looked the same and the hair colours were mostly shades of black-brown and nothing else. (Hairstyles were also pretty pathetic.) Maybe if it ever goes cheaper than the £18 sale I got it for originally I might try again but eh, I only got it to try the limited story so I'm not too bothered. I did get ME: Legendary from a friend so I'll eventually play that but idk I'm not really feeling anything after Outriders disappointed me and Remnant ended on a lacklustre note.

Pretty much, it was kinda cringe and ridiculous and gave me Jill and Gil vibes with the 'lol don't know if this place is very safe but let's talk about kids already' cringe. I know a lot of people are pissy they're charging full price for an expansion after the bad start Outriders had but idk enough about the game to comment on it. I know if I do ever think of getting it again if it goes even cheaper I will check youtube first to see if the camera shake in cutscenes has 100% gone or not because that crap was giving me a headache and motion sickness in less than an hour of play. Blergh. I have to turn that nonsense off in other games also if it's possible (I very nearly stopped playing Borderlands: The Presequel within like half hour of starting it because of severe camera shake right at the start. Luckily that didn't happen often but I did have to look away from the screen.)

Cool. I have been looking at mods. Something about the eyes just look dead and wild eyed stare compared to the OT so I'll have to see if I can find any replacers. I'm also going to attempt a custom Shepard. I only ever made two I really liked and they were with mods that don't exist in the Remaster. (Sadly means I'll not be able to remake my Garrus, and Cortez-romancing Shepard's in the Remaster.) But if I fail, well, Sheploo is my fave Shepard so I won't be too upset. But I probably won't play just yet, you're not wrong about Swtor burnout. I don't really want to get invested in playing the trilogy right now but looking at mods is almost as fun as playing a game. 

Forgot to post my ramble for a while so here it goes, everything I played in the last 2,5 years


Fable (Anniversary) - I'm super nostalgic for this game and it really holds up replaying it. I love the atmosphere, the tone, the music, the combat, it's really great. It lacks some character customisation and the remake did tone down the colours and bloom which is a shame, but overall it's great

Ori and the Will of the Wisps - just like the first one, I absolutely love it, it's one of my absolute favourites. Took everything that was good in the first one and made it better. The only thing I didn't like is that there won't be a third one. Highly recommended

Dead Space trilogy - I managed to replay this before they announced the remake. And I still don't understand the decision. The first two games hold up really well. They easily could have added hq textures and some effects and called it a day. A full remake in frostbite is overkill. But yeah, the first game is still really good, the second is even better, and the third is bad. The last dlc had a psychological angle that would have saved 3, but as is, the story is weak, the environments uninteresting, and the combat annoying (scavenger bot microtransactions!). We'll see what they do after the remake (haven't tried it, still too expensive)

Fable 3 - can't play 2, so I skipped to this. And it's really disappointing. I did like having a dog and I managed to make a character I like, but aside from that it's just so mediocre. The world is somehow emptier, the humour not really there (so weird that the Monty-Python-like humour worked better without Cleese), the combat more annoying. I just waited for it to end from the midpoint.

Disappointing. But one of the rare opportunities to make a huskier main character

Overlord 1 and 2 - nostalgia did make me misremember this one. Aside from some jokes that did not age well, it's just not that good. The combat isn't as fun as I remembered and beyond that there's very little else to enjoy

Journey - finally got to play it and it's absolutely stunning. The art and the music are amazing. It's only like 3 hours long, but it's long enough. It was also really weird to play it now after playing so many games that were inspired by Journey.

Lost Ember - I was really looking forward to this, seeing as artsy nature games are obviously my thing, but this was just ok. The game one moment looked pretty, the next like it was missing shaders. The story was boring and the choice for the voice of the main narrator was really poor (which made me regret not turning it off like the game asks at the beginning). It has a few mechanics connected with possessing other animals, but they are never really used for long. In the end it just doesn't impress in any way

Silent Hill Homecoming - I still like the gay story I kinda pieced together that isn't 100% canon (though the writer doesn't dismiss it), but yeah, this game has issues. The plot kinda meanders, the combat is clunky, and it still has a lot of glitches. Still love it anyway

Silent Hill Downpour - the emulators finally caught up, so I tried it and honestly, it's pretty good. It's not very scary and the plot lacks drive, but the design of the town is just the best rendition of Silent Hill yet. The atmosphere is just on point. And the side quests are probably the most interesting the series ever had. I'd even say it's second best in the series after 2

Psychonauts - with 2 finally coming out I replayed this and it's still awesome. It could use an upgrade for modern systems, some of the collectibles are annoying, and the controls are a struggle to get used to initially, but it's really worth playing. It's still very funny, Black Velvetopia is still amazing to look at, and the Milkman Conspiracy is still one of the most creative platformer levels ever made. I have no idea how they managed to make the exchange "- I am a grieving widow - I am your sister in grief" so funny, but they did. The levels, especially the latter ones explore (with humour) mental illnesses without being mean or cruel, which is pretty big for a video game from 2005.

Fe - pretty obviously influenced by Journey and Ori. Still, it's great, really cute game. There are some issues with steering the flying powers, but nothing too major. Somehow their (predictably) environmentalist message became way way more relevant in light of what happened in 2021 (meaning the billionaires reacting to climate change and covid by pushing fantasies of sending everyone to Mars)...

Diablo 2 remake - it's...fine. It looks a lot better and there's controller support, but the game runs very poorly on a computer that should handle it and it crashed miltiple times on me. I played as a werewolf druid, which is cool in itself (still so few ww games), but the game wanted to punish me for that. There were not area effect abilities for most of the game (fury unlocks at level 30 in the expansion) and there were no ranged abilities, which made some bosses tedious. Also I kept getting awesome gear for every single class but my own. I had sorceress staves for every level, but finding a single increased attack speed weapon that would boost the ww form is impossible.

Stardew Valley - liked it a lot. There's obviously grinding, but it's a very chill game. I romanced Shane, but wasn't super into it. I looked for mods and found a great romanceable npc, Sorren and nice portrait replacements for all of the characters, including Sorren

Amnesia Rebirth - it's ok. After how much I loved Soma I expected more from them. It's not really scary, even compared to the other Amnesias.

Cyberpunk - already wrote in the CP thread, not a fan

Powerwash Simulator - fun for a while, but gets too frustrating in the later levels

Hades - fantastic game, awesome soundtrack, great combat. And the game is so pretty and every character (aside from being interesting) is super hot. One minus is that I had to do a lot of runs to finally get Achilles and Patroclus reunited. But love all of the choices they've made, including pretty much making Asterius and Theseus a couple. Really wanted an interpretation that was kinder to the minotaur. Can't wait for the sequel.

I found a hidden gem : spell force soul harvest. Voiced protag, interesting story and two bi romance options( m and f) which are not walking stereotypes ,
they seem kinda knighty types to me , even if they have magic, I’m not sure ab the lore but it seems everyone have magic there idk meanwhile the straight guy is a macho one lol that’s not a BioWare trope Im used to
I’m in the middle of playing and the flirting seems nice but not too deep yet hoping for more development later

I've had a little time to play something so here's something

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu - eh it's fine. I need to try Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet now that they've patched them a bit and they run a bit better, I hope, but this feels very uninspired. Like aside from the new graphics there was little here over the old game.
But admittedly, it was fun to ride Arcanine


Werewolf the Apocalypse Earthblood - this game makes me so incredibly sad. I'll give this one a full review, so I can get it out of my system.

So you play as Cahal, father, husband, and right hand of the pack leader. He loves his wife and daughter. That's it, that's all you ever get to know about the protagonist. Oh and that he thinks that bards of werewolf history and knowledge suck, for some reason. I can't even guess why, because he's such a piece of damp cardboard.

The other characters aren't any better. You have the wife, the daughter, the pack leader, the tech saboteur, and some dude who's super great and loved by everyone, but you don't get to talk to, because he's always in his Lupus (full wolf) form. Not that talking would have added anything. The characters that do talk have flat voice acting, no characterisation, and nothing interesting to say. The fact that the faces look horrible does not help.

Because the game chose to have you play as an established pack member, instead of like a younger character before their first shift, it just throws codex prompts left and right to help you understand what's going on with the lore. I've been reading up on WtA, so I didn't have any issues, but most people would have to pause to understand what "help Ifen defend the Caern from the influence of the Wyrm" is supposed to mean.

The basic story of the tabletop RPG this game is based on is pretty simple - the three major forces, the Wyld, the Weaver, and the Wyrm, which are responsible for creation/chaos, preservation/order, destruction/entropy respectively, are no longer in balance. The world is heading towards the Apocalypse if the Wyrm is not stopped. Which in practice means you're a werewolf ecoterrorist tasked with stopping companies like big oil megacorp Endron (which is obviously a dig at Enron) that accelerate the world's decay.

It's an awesome premise. So what does the game do with it? Nothing more than what I wrote. 30 years of source books and campaigns, and it feels like the story was based on some quick wiki searches and maybe 2 meetings. During the first 30 minutes the wife goes undercover in an Endron facility and gets quickly discovered. We rush to save her, but it's too late - one of the werewolves that deflected to serve the Wyrm killed her. We go into a frenzy, which is an extreme state in which werewolves give into their rage and completely lose control, and kill him, but also our always-wolf packmember. Cahal's a threat to his pack now, so he goes into exile. So far, so good, frenzy is supposed to be a very bad thing. Except, the game immediately forgets that and gives you a frenzy meter and button in every battle.

So if gameplay wins over story then is it any good? Well, no. The game is basically 3 things from that point - side quests that involve scanning for spirits, and main quests that are either sneaking around or killing guards.

The sneaking is fine (lots of hacking and vent-hopping in Lupus form, which feel a lot like Deus Ex), but the ugly, monotonous, and repetitive environments kill all of the fun. In theory you have the choice to sneak for most of the levels, but in practice the walk cycles of guards glitch out very often and their ai makes no sense. So when you get discovered, you just kill waves of enemies and move into the next room. Since there there are zero consequences, you can do either, the next room won't know about the 40 guards you just killed. Speaking of - the fighting is also just fine. The werewolf form looks and feels great. But the abilities don't do much for variety and with so many waves of enemies it gets boring fast. Not to mention the camera that can't keep up and having to redo whole levels (which means more fighting), because of how broken the checkpoint system is. Saving right before a gate is supposed to go off is a bad idea, when you can't reliably script it.

After finishing the game and watching the endings, lasting maybe 2 minutes in total, I can't shake the feeling that this is a first draft, an early access build that somehow got released as a finished game. Everything, from story, to gameplay, to level design is so barebones. With some work it could have been decent, but as it is now, it's extremely mediocre. And that's heart-breaking, I'm losing faith I'll ever see a good werewolf game. I want a decent game with a werewolf protagonist or companion/love interest so much and it looks like there won't be any until...Elder Scrolls in 2032?

Anyway, here's some hot Earthblood werewolf form shots


Call of Cthulhu 2018 - so after being disappointed by Earthblood, I was randomly in the mood for some Lovecraftian horror, installed this, aaaaand the Cyanide logo popped up on the screen. Same dev as Earthblood. I was ready to be super disappointed yet again, but despite this game being older, it was better in every aspect. The graphics are good, the atmosphere is fantastic, the faces are still off, but better than in Earthblood. The voice acting is great (same VA as Reid from Vampyr). The gameplay and story are fun too. There are some issues, like gunplay, some story awkwardness (good luck guessing which choices give you which endings), some awkward leveling (why would you ever put points into strength in a game that does not use it), but nothing major. Overall, I recommend it. It's also an indication that Nacon, the company that bought Cyanide and a few other studios, might suck at management. This game was made when Cyanide was independent, Earthblood after the buyout.

Rouccoco Oh boy I understand the feelings on Pokemon Sword, was the last pokemon game I played but didn't get the dlc. There's a lot of cool ideas I like on that game but everything has this half finished feeling because we all assume they are rushed making these games but the worst part is that they generally just don't update them. Is a problem with most nintendo games in general, there's usually a lack of updates and improvements. Still mad how they abandoned Animal Crossing. But yeah this was the first pokemon in a long while that I really enjoyed my party and had a lot fresh interesting new faces. I don't even remember well the story, but there was this one hot guy and then he puts on short pants then I guess hes the bad guy later cuz obsessed about something. And the graphics have great environments on paper just not finished overall texturing wise. I wish the game just had the polish of let's go pikachu, which while I don't like some of its aging concepts and the pokemon go concept, it felt polished to me.

I wish I still had a switch to play that Kirby game but alas. I'll be back for Switch 2 though, hopefully it's true the rumors that it will be backward compatible.

Has for my currently playing, I'm at the very end of Dragon's Dogma 2 and about to platinum trophy the game as well, but will spit out the good the bad and the ugly of it on the dogma thread later when I'm done hahaha.