Just Do It

Haven't really felt like writing lately, but just to keep things up-to-date: DOOM is fantastic, I loved every minute of it, and I can't wait for more. Firewatch is great. Undertale and Kentucky Route Zero Act IV are what's happening right now. Stalled on Pokémon Go around level 13. Still working on my three-star guys in Marvel Puzzle Quest. But yeah, DOOM; play it.

They got the subway stops right!

Installed SOMA late last night. Finished SOMA early this morning. Only games I can recall ploughing-through like that are Psychonauts, Portal, Portal 2, and BioShock Infinite.

SOMA's incredible. The premise, the narrative, the presentation, the engine, most of the voice acting, the survey - seriously, the survey... They even set it in Toronto! I'm from Toronto! Basically, everything's dope... Except the monster/stealth stuff transplanted from Amnesia; that was stupid. Didn't ruin the game or anything, but there must've been a better way :\ Oh, and the protagonist's a fool, but then that's alright because I'm not sure we're supposed to relate to him anyway.

Game over, man? Game over, man.

Finally got into Alien: Isolation and ploughed right through it. I know I've said it before, but I'll do it again with a little more authority: It's an amazing game, incredibly well-designed, stunning to look at, and downright unnerving in some of the most ingenious ways. My only complaint is the time wasted replaying failed sections... But such is the nature of what seems to be a predominantly unscripted experience. I should probably complain that I was able to stockpile so much inventory by the end that I felt a little overpowered, but honestly, after the brutality leading-up to the final few levels, it was kinda nice to just kick some ass :) Buy this game on any platform if you haven't already.

Installed Aliens: Colonial Marines immediately after... Mostly to see if, even after the dust had settled, it's as bad as everyone said it was... It was. I got 20 minutes in before I promptly deleted it from my PC. Ergh.

Still grinding-away at Marvel Puzzle Quest... Cordy 2 when I need a break from that.

Dark Souls and Deadpool were put on hold, but not for long.

Looking to pick-up Severed for Vita and Forza 6 for Windows 10.

Prepare to... Oh, wait, this isn't so bad!

I suspect I may be too neurotic to enjoy Alien: Isolation. It's a fantastic concept, masterfully executed, gorgeously presented, and I just keep walking away from it... Possibly because I keep reloading saves/dying/whatever and it just kinda breaks the flow and asks for a little too much suspension of disbelief. So what'd I do? I finally installed Dark Souls.

I remember King's Field, I own Demon's Souls, Bloodborne's prolly gonna be my first PS4 game if I ever buy a PS4... But I hadn't sat-down with the Dark Souls series at all until just the other day... And it's pretty solid so far, and somehow holding my attention better than Isolation :( Perhaps it's because I also finally installed Deadpool, and it's way better than I'd heard! Was expecting a cheap DMC knock-off, but nope! Quality production value abound with this one; great to drop-in for 30 minutes at a time; solid relief from the frustration of the two aforementioned titles.

Also, Injustice was good, but nothing special; Killer Instinct kinda rules, but I've only tried the free parts on Windows 10 so far.

Cry farther, boy!

Wrapped-up Far Cry 4... Pretty satisfied.

The original Far Cry was a delightful breath of fresh air in the FPS genre, being all kinds of fun and ridiculous and pretty. The console-based spinoffs were lacking, but whatever; they don't matter in the long run. Crysis felt like more of an evolution of Far Cry (which makes sense, given the developer) whereas Far Cry 2 was a friggin' revelation in terms of design. The thing is, Far Cry 2 may have been a little too real with its malaria and endless enemies... As I recall, it was tryingly difficult, which was kinda sad 'cause it was such an amazing achievement. Far Cry 3 found the necessary balance to really open things up to the general public and Far Cry 4 was more of the same, but in a completely different locale; and I'm fine with that. The story was solid, the characters were over-the-top and entertaining, the choices were challenging (albeit myopic), the world was vibrant, exploration felt rewarding, and the Shangri-La missions were actually fantastic (which makes Far Cry Primal even more intriguing to me)... The best part? You could just kill all the main players after the credits roll... No! Wait! The best part is actually when "Jaan Pehechan Ho" starts playing during a particularly intense firefight :) Oh, and the DLC was fine, but kinda meh.

Aaanyway, wrapping-up Never Alone, lost interest in Hotline Miami 2, had a brief dalliance with Strife: Veteran Edition, and now I'm thinking it's time to suck it up and get back to Alien: Isolation.

Also, my Origin account was hacked. Got everything back, but lost all of my "on the house" titles :(

A cable car fell on him... After he fell out of that same cable car.

Wrapped-up The Old Blood; good times, albeit silly; the injuries BJ sustains in the cinematics are a little over-the-top. Burned through Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - which was fun - then revisited The Stanley Parable -which is still brilliant; I guess The Beginner's Guide is up next, but not before Grow Home 'cause I mean how fucking charming is that game!? :)

Black Friday

Just kinda wandered around downtown last Friday, and ended-up getting a New 3DS XL for $30-off plus a 32GB microSD for $20. The system transfer from my 3DS XL took forever, and I'll see how much I can get for the old one sans-power-adapter... But yeah, pretty happy about the new hardware!

Otherwise, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is my current jam; needed me some mindless, popcorn, narrative-driven FPS goodness.

...And again, and again...

Marvel Puzzle Quest's reward structure feels too spare, while Adventure Time Puzzle Quest just seems to keep losing everything from treasure to crafted items... I'm balming sync issues? Still, they're both mostly enjoyable and make a decent time-killing tandem.

Alien: Isolation keeps losing me, so it went back on the backburner while I gave Arkham Origins another go. Can't quite put my finger on it, but Origins just doesn't feel right... It all just feels so shallow now; no amazing setpieces like the previous entries in the series.

Speaking of Arkham, I guess PS4 is now definitively the best platform for Arkham Knight... So there's that.

Anyway, Hotline Miami 2 is still brilliant gameplay, but not as groundbreakingly brilliant of a package as the first one; feels more scattered while still kinda samey; different kind of impact.

Finally, Fallout: Haven't tried 4 yet, but went back and revisited 1,2, and 3... And then considered getting back to Borderlands because the dialogue was starting to grate on me... And then realised that all I really wanted to do was play RAGE again... And again...

The Quest continues...

Giving the Adventure Time and Marvel Puzzle Quests another chance, alternating between the two whilst waiting for parties to heal... Adventure Time is still iffy, but neither's bad; I just really wish I could play offline :(

So... Far.

Windows 10 on the desktop? Solid. Windows 10 on a touchscreen laptop? Needs work; specifically, in tablet mode. Like, the design is sound, but it just doesn't quite work yet... Windows get lost to everything but the Task Manager, some apps have constant title bars that simply aren't there in desktop mode, and Solitaire is buggy as all hell. I really like tablet mode, but man, I wish it wasn't such an afterthought :(

Finally...?

Got Windows 10 installed on the X1 Carbon; had to perform a clean installation of 8.1, then upgrade to 10 :\ Tablet mode is kind of interesting... I guess it's nice to be up-to-date.

So anyway...

I now have three amiibo: Toad because extra puzzles in Treasure Tracker, Green Yarn Yoshi because Yoshi's Woolly World bundle, and 30th Anniversary Mario - Classic Color because I found one in the wild and it looks really cool :)

Desert Golfing is rad.

Bloody Roar Extreme because why not?

Wario: Master of Disguise isn't as bad as I'd heard.

Yoshi Touch & Go is disappointing.

The Nexus 5X is too expensive next to the Moto X Play.

My ThinkPad X1 Carbon won't upgrade to Windows 10, and its display is ghosting... Thank goodness for warranties.

Uhm... What else... Ooh! Bought a Casio DG-10! :D

Tennis

Testing Windows 10 for deployment at work... It's kinda meh. I think I like 8.1 better. I mean, it's fine; it's pretty, yeah, but the windowed apps launched from the Start menu? Just not really feeling it yet. The new settings interface? Cool, but the Control Panel's still the place to be. No more Charms bar? Okay, that's totally sweet :) In terms of capitulation, I feel bad for Microsoft's unified cross-platform vision. As a production OS, however, 10's pretty solid so far.

Poo Brain

Why is Adventure Time Puzzle Quest so bad? Imprecise controls, server issues resulting in lost resources, arbitrary waiting periods, etc... It's almost pretty fun, but I just keep giving up :(

Double (Fine) Catching-Up

Sat down with Act 2 of Broken Age... Was alright; a few puzzles were pretty ridiculous and the ending was whack (à la RAGE). Not even mad; just a little underwhelmed.

Into Costume Quest 2 now; buggy, but still pretty fun so far.

Think I might try The Walking Dead again after this... Either that, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Four, or Ys Origin.

Blowing-off some Steam...

I didn't buy anything during the latest Steam/GOG/Humble sales.

Almost worth it...

Finally found a Toad amiibo! Accessing extra content in Treasure Tracker should not have been that difficult :(

Also, found complete copies of Missile Command 3D and Ruiner Pinball for Jaguar!

Freedom Wars hasn't quite been doing it for me; such a slow start.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is pretty... And kinda fun... And awfully simplistic so far :(

Honestly, I haven't been playing or shopping much lately.

Kinda not.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was great. Finished Killzone: Mercenary; it's gorgeous and also really fun and you should play it. Went back to Demon Gaze; too much mindless grind so far, but otherwise really cool. Hopped over to Freedom Wars... So weird; will report back.

P.S. Kirby's Dream Land 2 is kinda not a lot of fun.

What next?

Almost done Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, and it's just plain delightful; familiar but innovative, improving on many aspects of the series, and generally being the best Metroid-Light it can be. Looking forward to Half-Genie Hero, but kinda wishing it was portable.

Also, this guy at a flea market asked me for $80 for complete copies of Brain Dead 13 (v1.1) and Star Control II for 3DO because he had no idea... That's, like, $250 worth of stuff on a good day, but they weren't mint... I gave him $100.

Took me long enough...

Finished Risky's Revenge, and it was near-perfection. Every issue from the first game was addressed in the second. I found a couple of enemy designs to be problematic (the mermaids and skeletons slowed everything down to the point that it was better to just avoid them) and some of the fetch quests and story twists toward the end felt like filler (e.g. A coffee run!?), but it was still a good time. Just getting into Pirate's Curse now; so pretty!