cavalcade

Well, itshappening.gif

Thoughts? I think Halo 2 and the multiplayer component would probably be more interesting, and we've had the MCC. But first time a Halo is on a Sony console. Sign of MS's long term strategy to abandon hardware and just focus on software delivery and Gamepass, perhaps.

Play
Inspired by someone other than Garwoofoo, I played some WoW. It was so incredibly ahead of its time wasn't it? Just the interconnectivity of it all, without a thousand loading screens. And the visuals, they're sort of timeless - cartoony in a way that lets your eyes fill in the details. And the crack-like loop of gaining XP to level, like slipping back into a warm bath. Ah…. memories….

I will have to delete it.

Good lord Battlefield 6 is fun.

I've got my shiny new game blinders on, so this means nothing until I've spent more time with it, but I leave every match thinking it's the most fun I've ever had with an online FPS. Insane, explosive, beautiful, adrenaline-filled, crunchy, joyful stuff.

Do you not think the maps are a little too overly designed (very symmetrical) and weighted too much towards snipers? It looks glorious and nothing does spectacle like Battlefield, but you'd wonder what sort of longevity it has (people tend to quickly disperse if there's a constant sniping death cycle).

Glad to see my new career as an influencer is going well, even if my sphere of influence only extends to one person so far.

I've been playing Doom: The Dark Ages, which is a completely ridiculous videogame and, incidentally, a terrible Doom game. It completely misunderstands what made the original Doom so good - the pacing, the suspense, the transition between flickering hallways and sudden attacks, the way you had to mentally map spaces out in your mind, the intricate levels and well-hidden secrets - and simply goes all-out with an audiovisual onslaught that never lets up for a second. You are shooting things, hitting things with flails or smacking things with shields pretty much every second you are playing this game, while a comically loud metal soundtrack grinds out in the background and more and more monsters spawn in around you.

It's really quite brilliant even if it seems to be based on the popular misconception of how Doom played, rather than what it actually was. Dok would hate it. I'm having fun. Maybe you can try that one next cav.

I've played Dark Ages quite a bit. I think it's quite brave that it attempts to reinvent the formula from the two modern reinterpretations that preceded it. I think it has a really chunky and interesting feel to the combat and some nice visual flourishes.

Where I think it's less successful is that it isn't in the Doom 2016/Prodeus design space where there is an elegance to the level design, with both the intricacy you talk about but also how it drives the player forwards through intelligent lighting and signposting. Dark Ages does feel a bit like a series of arenas and constant combat, and also suffers a bit from the cardinal sin of this sort of game which is attacks from blind spots/behind that are hard to mitigate and predict because they come from random spawns. The story too though, dearie me, who thought that was a good idea?

It's good though, and hats off to the devs for not just turning out the same game again.

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Slowly closing in on all 50 achievements for Monster Train 2. One of them looks tricky (the score 50k in a daily challenge) but the rest are probably doable (I think I have 3 or 4 to go). Hundreds of hours in it and I don't even think I've got truly broken decks yet (I've had the screen a few times that asks if you really want to continue with a loop of triggers that has been going on for ages, but even then, looking at Reddit I'm miles off some of the truly bonkers builds). Probably an all timer for me. When's Monster Train 3 out.

Weirdly, I had a strong urge to play Arkham Asylum, and then realised I seem to be working through Gar's games he's finished this year. Even so, I'd have to agree - for a 2009 game it's hardly aged, and it's so lean and devoid of bloat. Only problem is the subtitles weren't designed for an era of handhelds and 1080p, so they're absolutely tiny. And, as I'm really down with GenZ, I always play with subtitles on.

Also, following in Gar's footsteps I had an urge to get back into Indiana Jones, which I dropped as it wasn't doing anything for me. Clearly my new life is trying to enjoy anything Gar has completed 6 months ago.

I have to get back to Banishers (which is absolutely the blandest game I've ever played) and LA Noire (which I restarted and is quite a good fit for a handheld). As I've said before, I don't think we've had another game quite like LA Noire since, have we?

I've also downloaded Keeper to give it a shot.

Want
To complete the full Garwoofoo this month I fancied buying Mario Galaxy - as far as I know it's basically a 60fps experience on the OG Switch right? I really enjoyed it at the time and I've never played the second.

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I was hoping I'd like Ball X Pit - which is allegedly the new roguelike hotness. But I played it a bit and then got stuck on a screen with no obvious way to continue. I'm all for light tutorials, but I was so annoyed I gave up. I'm sure it's great, but that level of irritation is too much in this era of infinite distractions.