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Grissallia<p>February 9, 2024 - Day 405 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 441</p><p>Game: Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Released: Aug 31, 2022<br>Installed: Feb 9, 2024<br>Unplayed: 0d<br>Playtime: 24m</p><p>Rating: 3 - OK</p><p>Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed is a third person open world adventure game. It's the third game in February's Humble Choice bundle.</p><p>Unlike Scorn, I actually had DAH!2-R on my wishlist. However, what I didn't know is that while it's a sequel to 2020's Destroy All Humans!, it turns out that Destroy All Humans! was a remake of Destroy All Humans! released in 2005, and DAH!2-R is a remake of the sequel Destroy All Humans! 2.</p><p>DAH!2-R is set in 1969, and you're playing as a clone of the original Furon invader, Cryptosporidium-137.</p><p>As the now-President of The United States, you find yourself under attack by the KGB, having simultaneously destroyed your mothership in orbit, and waves of KGB agents launching a direct ground assault on you, while you're attending a music festival in San Francisco. Of course.</p><p>It's feels much like a pastiche of alien invasion movies of the 1950's &amp; 1960's, and it's kind of goofy fun.</p><p>Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed is:</p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/DestroyAllHumans2Reprobed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DestroyAllHumans2Reprobed</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Adventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Adventure</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HumbleChoice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HumbleChoice</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ProjectONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ProjectONG</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>February 6, 2024 - Day 402 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 438</p><p>Game: Paradise Killer</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Released: Sep 5, 2020<br>Installed: Feb 2, 2024<br>Unplayed: 4d<br>Playtime: 21m</p><p>Rating: 4 - Good?</p><p>Paradise Killer is a first person open world detective mystery visual novel... thing?</p><p>It's really quite unique, with a kind-of vaporwave-ish aesthetic and in the 20 minutes I spent with it, it left me intrigued.</p><p>Paraduse Killer is so out of the box that I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's:</p><p>4: Good?</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/ParadiseKiller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ParadiseKiller</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FirstPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FirstPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a>#Adventure <a href="https://aus.social/tags/VisualNovel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>VisualNovel</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mystery</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Detective" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Detective</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ProjectONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ProjectONG</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>December 25, 2023 - Day 359 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 381</p><p>Game: American Fugitive</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: May 21, 2019<br>Installation Date: Dec 18, 2023<br>Unplayed: 7d<br>Playtime: 20m</p><p>American Fugitive is a top-down 3D open-world action-adventure game.</p><p>Feeling a lot like early GTA games, you play as a petty thief who's been framed for the murder of his father. After breaking out of prison you set out to clear your name.</p><p>By committing other crimes.</p><p>After escaping from prison, you need to avoid the police until you escape from the general area of the prison. Apparently, they're looking for a red-haired bearded man in a yellow prison jumpsuit, and not a red-headed bearded man in a white shirt and blue jeans (that I just stole off someone's clothesline).</p><p>Graphically, it's well executed, although I found the steering of vehicles to be incredibly twitchy.</p><p>One of weird little things that became clear to me this year is that I really don't enjoy games where I'm playing as a criminal.</p><p>A game that expects me to commit crimes against NPCs portrayed as innocent bystanders, is something that just rubs me the wrong way, and as potentially interesting as the setup for this game is, I just felt kind of icky afterwards.</p><p>Also, playing as a male character still continues to make me feel disconnected from what's happening in the game.</p><p>Unfortunately for American Fugitive, that just leaves me feeling pretty: </p><p>2: Meh</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/AmericanFugitive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AmericanFugitive</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/TopDown" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TopDown</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Action" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Action</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Adventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Adventure</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>November 16, 2023 - Day 320 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 339</p><p>Game: Homefront: The Revolution</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: May 17, 2016<br>Installation Date: Sep 11, 2022<br>Unplayed: 431d (1y2m5d) <br>Playtime: 29m</p><p>Homefront: The Revolution is an open-world FPS reboot of 2011's Homefront, a game I reviewed on the 5th of January.</p><p>The setting is much the same; a unified Korea has invaded the United States, and you find yourself as a member of the resistance seeking to fight back against a superior military force.</p><p>It was only when I started playing it that it started to feel familiar.</p><p>Of my 29 minutes playtime, about half of that was just watching things happen on screen.</p><p>The biggest problem though is that it's not a game that's aged well. The game mechanics themselves seem totally fine, it's an issue of timing.</p><p>Right now, while Israel's government commits war crimes against innocent Palestinians while claiming self defence against Hamas, and the war by Russia against Ukraine continues, and with an ascendent US fascist movement painting themselves as the resistance, this game does not feel like a game.</p><p>When I play a game, it's partially to escape from the world, not to remind me of it, and Homefront: The Revolution does exactly that, so it all feels a bit:</p><p>2: Meh</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/HomefrontTheRevolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HomefrontTheRevolution</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FPS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FPS</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a><br><a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>October 5, 2023 - Day 278 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 298</p><p>Game: Just Cause 4</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Dec 5, 2018<br>Installation Date: Jul 15, 2019<br>Unplayed: 1543d (4y2m20d)<br>Playtime: 45m</p><p>Just Cause 4 is a third-person action-adventure open-world-ish game.</p><p>You play as the ongoing lead character from the Just Cause series, Rico Rodriguez; previously a mercenary working with "The Agency"; Rico has apparently parted ways with them prior to the events of Just Cause 4.</p><p>In each instalment, Rico has been tasked with taking down a dictator in small "South American" countries.</p><p>Playing as Rico, you're required to intricately gather intelligence while designing a mission to quietly take down the dictator... but seriously, no.</p><p>The storyline of each game is basically a fig leaf for creatively blowing up as much stuff as possible.</p><p>Rico's primary interaction with the environment is a wrist mounted grappling hook, that allows you to come up with all sorts of creative ways to navigate the open-world.</p><p>You can use the grapple to quickly jump from point to point, or use it to get airborne, then switch to a parachute or wingsuit depending on your goal. You can also grapple onto moving vehicles, and then hijack them for high-speed hijinks.</p><p>Then there are the guns. You can only carry two at a time, but each gun generally has an alternate firing mode, giving you up to four options for creative mayhem with the highlighted targets; destructible environmental objects are helpfully painted red or marked with obvious red highlights.</p><p>This is not an RPG where you carefully assess which weapon has better DPS. Pick up gun, shoot stuff until you're out of ammo, pick up another gun. These small dictatorships sure like to leave weapons lying around all over the place.</p><p>One of the reasons I put off playing JC4, even though I enjoyed the mayhem of JC3, was that reviews essentially made it out to be "Rico vs the weather", and made it sound like something I wouldn't enjoy.</p><p>Anyway, they were pretty much wrong. As per the previous games, it's grapple around and blow things up. It's not exactly Shakespeare, but sometimes it's just fun to blow things up.</p><p>Just Cause 4 seems:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/JustCause4" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>JustCause4</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ActionAdventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ActionAdventure</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>September 26, 2023 - Day 269 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 289</p><p>Game: Rage 2</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: May 14, 2019<br>Installation Date: Nov 22, 2022<br>Unplayed: 308d (10m4d)<br>Playtime: 32m</p><p>Rage 2 is an open-world post-apocalyptic FPS.</p><p>Do you like things that go "splorch" when you shoot them? If you answered 'yes', Rage 2 might be the game for you!</p><p>Rage 2 is a sequel to Rage, a post-apocalyptic FPS. I played 27 minutes of Rage back in 2022, and found it a bit repetitive and grindy, and visually it was many shades of brown, grey, and black.</p><p>Rage 2 is BRIGHT! There's a woman with a blue mohawk and white facepaint screaming out of a pink and yellow background on the Steam header, like an escapee from Mad Max Fury Road.</p><p>The game is set about 30 years after the end of Rage, and the antagonist from Rage who wanted to take over the world is back, and he's pissed.</p><p>...and mostly robotic. He's been living underground and has amassed a ragtag army of mutants to... take over the world.</p><p>Where Rage felt grindy and repetitive even within the first 30 minutes, Rage 2 felt more... fun. However, I've only really completed what is essentially the intro, and gotten my first vehicle and a handful of quests, so maybe it will turn out to be less fun as time goes by.</p><p>In any case, I now have an alternative post-apocalyptic shoot-and-splorch game to Outriders.</p><p>Rage 2 seems:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rage2" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rage2</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FPS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FPS</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PostApocalyptic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PostApocalyptic</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a><br><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>August 14, 2023 - Day 226 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 246</p><p>Game: Submerged</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Aug 4, 2015<br>Library Date: May 13, 2023<br>Unplayed: 93d (3m1d)<br>Playtime: 24m</p><p>Submerged is an third-person post-apocalyptic open-world exploration game. You play as a young girl, Miku, who is trying to save her brother's life, and to do so, must sail around a submerged city, climbing the buildings and exploring the ruins to locate crates containing survival items.</p><p>It's very pretty, but based on my movement through the game so far, it seems like it will be a reasonably short game that won't outstay its welcome.</p><p>I think the sail-&gt;search-&gt;climb-&gt;find gameplay loop could get pretty old pretty quickly.</p><p>As you move through the story, you uncover pieces of Miku &amp; her brother's story, and the story of what happened to the city in the form of pictographs, and as you explore, there are 60 collectables to find.</p><p>Submerged is:</p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Submerged" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Submerged</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>July 27, 2023 - Day 208 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 227</p><p>Game: The Eternal Cylinder</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Oct 14, 2022<br>Library Date: Mar 14, 2023<br>Unplayed: 135d (4m13d)<br>Playtime: 22m</p><p>The Eternal Cylinder is a weird game. It's a weird open-world-ish adventure-slash-survival-slash-puzzle game where you play as a little creature called a Trebhum, and you can consume stuff around you in the environment in order to evolve.</p><p>Which you need to do, to try and stay ahead of the giant unavoidable titular "Eternal Cylinder", which literally crushes everything in it's path.</p><p>Including you, if you can't get ahead of it, and to one of the towers dotted around the landscape that stop the cylinder. Temporarily.</p><p>The alien landscape reminds me of the planets in No Man's Sky, but the weirdest thing on the planet's surface might be the Trebhum. These little spehroidal* creatures start out with two eyes and a snout, which which they consume (left mouse button) and expel (right mouse button) things they find around the environment.</p><p>Some of these things help the little Trebhum evolve new abilities. Like suddenly growing legs with which to jump and run away from the giant, world-crushing cylinder.</p><p>Fortunately the game autosaves a lot because, y'all gonna need it.</p><p>All the while, the game is narrated by a friendly &amp; gentle Englishman (who's actually a New Zealand actor, Peter Hadyen), guiding you through the things you need to do to survive.</p><p>The only reason I stopped playing was because I had my late work shift and a co-worker waiting on me to make the actual phone calls due to my lack of actual voice, otherwise I would have continued playing.</p><p>The Eternal Cylinder is crushingly:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/TheEternalCylinder" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TheEternalCylinder</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Survival" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Survival</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Adevnture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Adevnture</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Puzzler" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Puzzler</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>July 2, 2023 - Day 183 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 202</p><p>Game: Elden Ring</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Feb 25, 2022<br>Library Date: Jul 2, 2023<br>Unplayed: 0d<br>Playtime: 33m</p><p>Here we are, at the half-way mark. There are 182 days ahead, and 182 days behind. For today, I decided on something special</p><p>Turns out, in return for my upgrading my son's computer last night, he bought me the game of my choice today... which was Elden Ring. Again.</p><p>Technically, this is not an "unplayed" game. My kids bought me Elden Ring for my birthday last year, and I attempted to play it, got intensely frustrated with it, and quit out after 80 minutes and got a refund.</p><p>I simply didn't understand that death is part of a soulslike.</p><p>However, in the process of playing through this project, I grasped the play style of a soulslike, which brings me back to Elden Ring.</p><p>In case you've been living under all of the rocks, Elden Ring is a third-person open-world soulslike action-RPG.</p><p>It's dark, and brooding, almost devoid of colour. As with other soulslikes, there are points within the game that you can return to either when resurrecting, or to (effectively) save your progress.</p><p>However, do that, and it resurrects all the mobs you just killed, doesn't it? (Yes. It does.)</p><p>There's a constant trade-off between returning to these points to restore your energy, and effective save your inventory, and upgrade, or to keep moving forward, in the hope of finding what Elden Ring calls a "Site of Grace".</p><p>Starting over from the beginning on a fresh save, I learned something that I missed first time around... when I quit out after 80 minutes in March 2022, I hadn't even completed the tutorial. The final tutorial boss frustrated me so badly, I gave up.</p><p>Probably should have gone in with a character base far less squishy too.</p><p>This time, as a Vagabond, I died twice, and I enjoyed myself.</p><p>It's still not "I MUST PLAY THIS UNTIL I AM FINISHED!", but it's definitely "I'm going to willingly spend some time in this game."</p><p>Thus, at the halfway point of <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a>, I'm happy to say, having given it another shot, Elden Ring is:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/EldenRing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EldenRing</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Soulslike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Soulslike</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ARPG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ARPG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>June 25, 2023 - Day 176 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 195</p><p>Game: Kingdom Come: Deliverance</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Feb 13, 2018<br>Library Date: Sep 7, 2019<br>Unplayed: 1387d (3y9m18d)<br>Playtime: 1h34m</p><p>Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a first-person open world RPG set in medieval Bohemia. You play Henry, a young man set on a mission of vengeance.</p><p>This was a game that I really knew nothing about, that was part of the August 2019 Humble Bundle. After I disappointed <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://fosstodon.org/@bluntelk" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bluntelk</span></a></span> by not enjoying ToeJam &amp; Earl, he asked if I'd played this.</p><p>I had not, and since I owned this on one Steam, away I went.</p><p>Once again, going into the game without knowing anything about it proved somewhat beneficial to the setup of the story. RPGs often follow the pattern of the Hero's Journey.</p><p>Henry's life in this bucolic village in Bohemia was obviously not going to be the whole of the game. Had I read the logline for the game on the Steam page, it gives away the catalysing event that sets Henry on his journey, so it was devastating to experience it first-hand, but also gave me a fire in my bones that I might have lacked knowing what I was in for.</p><p>In terms of gameplay, it's a good looking game for a game released five years ago, &amp; built in Crytek's CryEngine.</p><p>Will I complete it? I'm not sure. Statistically, it's unlikely. I've started multiple Assassin's Creed games, and haven't completed any of them. I was hours into Cyberpunk 2077 before discovering I hadn't even completed the prologue. In all my time gaming, the only open-world game I've even completed is FarCry 5. </p><p>There's also the issue of playing a male protagonist. When I play a game with a female protagonist I feel a sense of connection that's noticeably absent with male protagonists; in fact, recognising this was another small piece in understanding the puzzle that is myself.</p><p>However, the story did pique my interest, and it might be one of those games that draws me back, so I'm going to sit with it for a while.</p><p>Overall, (and this should make <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://fosstodon.org/@bluntelk" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bluntelk</span></a></span> happy), I think Kingdom Come: Deliverance is:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/KingdomComeDeliverance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>KingdomComeDeliverance</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FirstPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FirstPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/RPG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RPG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>May 28, 2023 - Day 148 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 164</p><p>Game: Sable</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Sep 23, 2021<br>Library Date: Mar 10, 2023<br>Unplayed: 79d (2m18d)<br>Playtime: 1h55m</p><p>Sable is a third-person open-world adventure &amp; exploration game. Unlike... any open world game I've played, as far as I can recall, it has no combat.</p><p>Sable is the coming of age story of the eponymous main character, and leaving her clan to embark on her "gliding".</p><p>Apparently inspired by Breath of the Wild, Sable's quest takes her climbing and solving puzzles across her home world of Midden; seemingly a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Sable rides her hoverbike from destination to destination, picking up quests.</p><p>Her goal is to collect a series of masks, which (if I understand correctly), will ultimately lead her to a ceremony to choose a final mask, which seemingly represents her permanent role within her society.</p><p>Sable has a quite lovely cel-shaded graphic style with a dynamic colour scheme that changes based on a day &amp; night cycle, and has an almost ethereal soundscape.</p><p>Sable is:</p><p>5: Excellent</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Sable" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Sable</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Adventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Adventure</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>Apr 27, 2023 - Day 117 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 132</p><p>Game: Phoning Home</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Feb 8, 2017<br>Library Date: Mar 13, 2018<br>Unplayed: 1871d (5y1m14d)<br>Playtime: 95m</p><p>Phoning Home is a third-person open-world robot survival sim. It is also free on Steam (which is why there's a link at the end).</p><p>Phoning Home was developed by ION LANDS, who went on to create Cloudpunk, (one of my all-time favourite games).</p><p>I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of sandbox survival games. Valheim left me cold, and V Rising genuinely left me regretting spending the money on it.</p><p>Phoning Home, on the other hand, is a narrative driven survival game, which takes the exploration and construction and gives it purpose.</p><p>I only intended to play this for 15 minutes before work, and was an hour late starting work, so deep did it suck me in and make me want to keep playing, and further the story of the cute little WALL-E inspired robot, ION.</p><p>To the point that the new Warframe expansion The Duviri Paradox dropped today (it's free too!), and if I'm to have any hope of giving it a fair go, I'll need to play that first, because otherwise I suspect I'll be up all night playing Phoning Home.</p><p>Which means this is:</p><p>5: Excellent</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/PhoningHome" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PhoningHome</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Survival" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Survival</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p><p><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/431650/Phoning_Home/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">store.steampowered.com/app/431</span><span class="invisible">650/Phoning_Home/</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>Apr 24, 2023 - Day 114 - NewPlay Bonus Review<br>Total NewPlays: 128 </p><p>Game: Sunset Overdrive</p><p>Platform: Steam PC<br>Release Date: Nov 17, 2018<br>Library Date: Apr 24, 2023<br>Unplayed: 0d (0d)<br>Playtime: 45m</p><p>Sunset Overdrive was on my wishlist for several years, &amp; it's on sale on Steam right now for $7.11.</p><p>However, it's in a bundle in which I own the other title, dropping the price to $6.26, which seemed too easy.</p><p>Still, past me hasn't always made the best decisions with my waitlist, and my eldest has it in his shared Steam library, so I installed it from there &amp; played it.</p><p>I spent the six bucks.</p><p>Sunset Overdrive feels like an open world mashup of Borderlands, Dying Light, &amp; Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, by way of iZombie.</p><p>The core premise of monsters created by drinking an energy drink at a launch party feels like it was lifted wholesale from iZombie; however, Sunset Overdrive originally released on Xbox in 2014, with iZombie being developed in 2014 &amp; released in 2015, which is interesting timing, to say the least.</p><p>The bright, hyperkinetic gameplay involving grinding rails &amp; acrobatics while shooting monsters is refreshing, &amp; leans into aggressive offensive gameplay, rather than playing defense like a cover shooter.</p><p>It doesn't take itself seriously, breaking the fourth wall, &amp; if you've got a spare 7 bucks, it's worth the buy.</p><p>Sunset Overdrive is:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/SunsetOverdrive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SunsetOverdrive</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Shooter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Shooter</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>Apr 23, 2023 - Day 113 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 124 </p><p>Game: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor</p><p>Platform: Steam PC<br>Release Date: Oct 1, 2014<br>Library Date: Mar 13, 2018<br>Unplayed: 1867d (5y1m10d)<br>Playtime: 74m</p><p>Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a third-person open-world action-adventure (some light RPG elements) that is, surprisingly, set in Middle-earth, between The Hobbit and LotR.</p><p>However, the most surprising thing about this game for me, other than the ~20 minutes of introduction video, was how it does not feel like a game that's almost 9 years old.</p><p>You play as a Gondor Ranger that's been murdered and trapped between life and death, and... look, I'm not sure what the end-game is meant to be, but I was having a hell of a time just sneaking around and kill Uruk-hai.</p><p>Combat is fun (if a little counter-intuitive, being that space is "run" and left-shift is "sneak".)</p><p>Sneaking up behind an unaware Uruk and shanking them with the dagger is satisfying, as is straight-up swordplay. </p><p>You can also "stealth" into wraith mode, and put an arrow into into a distant orc, and watch them drop with a satisfying whistle-and-thunk.</p><p>This game feels like motivation to keep playing through library, to discover gems like this that I'd missed completely.</p><p>Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/MiddleEarth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MiddleEarth</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ShadowOfMordor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ShadowOfMordor</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ActionAdventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ActionAdventure</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>Feb 2, 2023 - Day 33 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 40</p><p>Game: Agents of Mayhem<br>Platform: Steam PC<br>Release Date: Aug 16, 2017<br>Library Date: May 26, 2020<br>Unplayed: 982 days (2y8m7d)<br>Playtime: 41m</p><p>From the developers who brought you Saints Row, Saints Row 2, Saints Row The Third, the over-the-top Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Saints Row: Gat out of Hell, and Saints Row (a reboot of Saints Row that shares a name and little else) comes a repetitive "open-world" action-adventure game vaguely connected to Saints Row (but not the reboot) that is to action-adventure games what Hush Puppies are to high fashion.</p><p>You play as a squad of three characters, that you can switch between mid-fight. Like Trine, but somehow less fun.</p><p>The game is set in a largely deserted, but very pretty, representation of a futuristic version of Seoul. The gameplay is smooth, the mechanics proficient, the characterisation and voiceovers are well done.</p><p>I played through two missions; all the pieces of something entertaining are there, yet somehow fail to mesh into something I want to keep playing.</p><p>I can't put my finger on what's missing, just that it is. A little less polish, and this would be "meh", but for me Agents of Mayhem just scrapes across the line to:</p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/AgentsOfMayhem" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AgentsOfMayhem</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPersonShooter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPersonShooter</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OpenWorld" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenWorld</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>