tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81618388311387289452024-03-17T23:04:41.417-04:00Red Sector: ShutdownMegabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.comBlogger469125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-65317754570698961542024-03-17T16:56:00.006-04:002024-03-17T16:56:53.522-04:00Metrico+ (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2024/03/metrico-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="96" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbom4czQHVcTcWRfgufVDoYeBZJWkxvDh-8X_w0dtCmPW7IE9b6O7VkRE5wQ_i5k1ldmKfv_YNLhRrPR9ZAbmGujQnDBgA_8dX8pTf-66UqIHQNy8IqYDoAk5zwMJQAaxsF803k_PJSMBkqX8tvW13P9cqlBONCyTnK1XdpHKSsGca0NpkJylr9MUcDPg/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-17-11h22m18s209.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Once again, we find ourselves at the reverse end of a game I picked up back in the day via a humble bundle. It looked interesting so I figured "why not?" Well, it's not the worst decision I've ever made, but whether that's because it wasn't bad or it was short is up for debate. Probably a bit of both, though.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> I.. honestly don't think there is really a story here. Yes, you slowly turn into a robot as you play and make your way through the levels, but if there is any meaning to this, it's lost on me. Hell even the game's steam page says (and I quote) "Decide what your story is in Metrico+" so I don't think anyone is trying to tell any story here.<br /></p><p>N/A</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Metrico is not a game that will impress you with it's looks in a traditional sense, opting instead for a very minimalist look. The world you interact with will be made of simple geometric shapes such as pyramids, blocks, and cylinders... and little else. The only shading at all in this world is to give these objects their 3D depth, be it something simple, but majestic in the background or the single layer you will play in. And yet at the same time, this simple look gives the world a cohesive theme of running around through graphs like you might see in a business presentation. Seriously, that is exactly what this game looks like.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJ_DhMJzplnmJanSMkfCKRO8PM72_GwENqVRRsnZHWfS6Xoc6kCVP4fSppGysKktGrzVpXbmVOOYP6yuZMt2zGsoIyFeuZBUGEjVDiz_cb6178b12hjBhh21lgJ_brGmGexF6zPcW5u0SBjhGDbITJgajQ0RYAO5Szu0wnclqV4z2FJzYyxnGTD3bBTo/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-17-11h22m42s987.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJ_DhMJzplnmJanSMkfCKRO8PM72_GwENqVRRsnZHWfS6Xoc6kCVP4fSppGysKktGrzVpXbmVOOYP6yuZMt2zGsoIyFeuZBUGEjVDiz_cb6178b12hjBhh21lgJ_brGmGexF6zPcW5u0SBjhGDbITJgajQ0RYAO5Szu0wnclqV4z2FJzYyxnGTD3bBTo/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-17-11h22m42s987.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Most of the time, it will be you doing this on your own as there are VERY few entities (I am hard pressed to call them enemies so much as just things) that will populate this world. And you are a little more detailed, but not much. It's clear your character is 3D rendered as well, but you have zero shading, leaving you just an outline of either a generic male or female character. That extra detail basically makes your outline more refines but not much else.</p><p>As for those other entities, well, they are nothing more then moving objects you will have to use/avoid to complete the puzzles as you move along. There are exactly 4, each with their own function, but the most important one being the circle. This pretty much marks the end of each of the world you are in as well as where you will be slowly made more robotic as mentioned in the story section.</p><p>Overall it's actually a pleasing look to the game, but make no mistake, there is a reason why just about any potato machine can run this game well.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> By the very length of the game, you can expect the music here to also be very limited, but in essence you can also expect it to generally sound how the background music a generic instruction training video to introduce new employees to a job might sound... it has that same perky but generic feel, which, based on the feel the graphics go for, may well be the intent. It's pleasant enough, but it's not designed to stay with you any longer then elevator music... or the time it takes anyone late to the presentation to get to their seat before the presentation can introduce it's main speaker.</p><p>Don't expect a lot out of the sound effects either, since the game really doesn't have much. None of the entities make any noise, so everything is a noise you create, be it your steps, your huff as you jump or other ways you interact with the world. It sounds good enough, but the game just didn't call for much at all.</p><p>And of course, with a setup this devoid of story, there really isn't much in the way of voice work, either, so if you expected at least a commentary, you are in the wrong place.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> With everything else almost designed to stay out of the way, the gameplay is where you are going to focus on this one, for better or for worse. Metrico+ is in essence a side-scrolling platform puzzle game with the gimmick of the world you playing in being made up of the kind of graphs you might see in a business presentation to see how a company is doing. Each world is made of several puzzles (most of which fit in a single screen, though some may take up a few) in which you will have to use the controls you have been offered so far to figure out how these graphs react to your actions and manipulate them to progress to the next one.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImsmA99k6ubaqchsAVwYwpAgXz9OuaKU_nvRp2IO68kUxzRds_w4DEZGrTZZbhG9bxsmqd_SVB6KL-rtOMO2ifatjjTeD3y7jIlaCOHuptpWykDKMI6LvGAUIYfRM813DWL3ud5sN8KuyIgQhyphenhyphenuWO0bOdHBfTYu36YShVv_Dbk4use8QrXzHorD262Fo/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-17-11h25m04s526.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImsmA99k6ubaqchsAVwYwpAgXz9OuaKU_nvRp2IO68kUxzRds_w4DEZGrTZZbhG9bxsmqd_SVB6KL-rtOMO2ifatjjTeD3y7jIlaCOHuptpWykDKMI6LvGAUIYfRM813DWL3ud5sN8KuyIgQhyphenhyphenuWO0bOdHBfTYu36YShVv_Dbk4use8QrXzHorD262Fo/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-17-11h25m04s526.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>This starts simple with only the abilities to run and jump, so there isn't much you can do that the world will react to, but completing each world will leave you at the start of the next one with a new ability to add to that arsenal, and once the game has seen fit to show you the basics of that new ability, you are off to the next set of puzzles, which in turn is allowed to get more complex. Nothing is explained to you through all this beyond the first time you are expected to take advantage of something new, and even that assist is limited: basically if you don't find the new power within a brief time at the beginning of the world, the game will show you what button it's on. It won't tell you what it does, though. That will be up to you to press it and find out. And once you have it, you are off to the races to see what will do what in the next puzzle.</p><p>Just be aware that even between puzzles in the same world, how things react to your actions can change, so each puzzle will have it's own set of rules you will have to discover for yourself. But this is also where I actually have to take issue with the game. It's not for difficulty, as anything you face will reveal all the crevasses of it's design to you if you are patient and prod it for them.... most of the time. But it's that "most" I have to get annoyed with. I will explain in the bugs section, but lets just say there may be a time or two you will have to quit and reload the game to complete it late in the game... I did.</p><p>The game is also exceptionally short. Spanning 6 worlds, someone who knows the puzzles can complete it from opening screen to end credits in about 45 minutes without too much issue. My own blind run took a little under 4 hours with all the prodding to figure out those puzzles included, and for the record, I'm notorious for taking my time when playing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwNNTKfUn0LkZyLGPf0tv4o36GebpAksxMn5lHHqqMqzyyVFDKVLWmy1RauuvN59lzUUZFIBAC9NXKVwsuTODAD8iV55oMM6MH_IUdDqnS8T15NOHlsvl60-r8qN1CljA4jkeXkM-fXf_qJ_XD5y9ovAde536rylYuZMg27qvcKbelj73lokUDhIkZFIA/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-17-11h26m03s731.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwNNTKfUn0LkZyLGPf0tv4o36GebpAksxMn5lHHqqMqzyyVFDKVLWmy1RauuvN59lzUUZFIBAC9NXKVwsuTODAD8iV55oMM6MH_IUdDqnS8T15NOHlsvl60-r8qN1CljA4jkeXkM-fXf_qJ_XD5y9ovAde536rylYuZMg27qvcKbelj73lokUDhIkZFIA/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-17-11h26m03s731.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Another thing I should note is control choices. When you start the game for the first time, it will recommend a controller, but I am not sure I do, specifically due to a puzzle late in the game. You see, one of the abilities you gain is to fire a projectile, and to aim it. If you are using a controller you do so with the right stick, while on Keyboard and mouse, you use the mouse to do so. The problem is while the mouse lets you aim at specific spots by literally pointing at them, the stick aims a direction... and while I generally would have thought that would be the better choice in a game like this, it also "snaps" into place if you get close enough to a straight fire unlike the absolute freedom the mouse offers. And when you have a puzzle that requires you to aim within the angle that brings about that snap... yeah, it almost breaks the game in an instant. Yes, the controller works more then fine for most of the game, but I wouldn't blame you for switching in that moment.</p><p>5/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> While the game ran very well for the most part, I can not say it ran perfectly. No it didn't crash or anything like that, but the engine controlling the rules for each puzzle can get wonky. For me one of the last three puzzles in the entire game became just about impossible as it seemed as if the puzzle itself was undecisive of how objects should react to each other... causing a required response to stutter along at random rather then smoothly reply to the moving object it was supposed to. This would have been annoying, but the amount of times you could repeat the actions to complete it is limited by a second object dropping down over the path you have to take to move on. Act too many times and you will have to reset the puzzle, which I did MANY times thanks to this. Reloading the game fixed this, however, managing to let the game scrape by from being considered utterly broken. Still, it's worth noting this can happen.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Digital Rights Management:</b> The only DRM you will need is Steam itself. You need to be logged into an account (at least in offline mode) with the license attached to play but there is no extra anything here beyond that.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Overall: </b>I honestly can't call this a great game by any means. It's interesting, but in the end it doesn't do anything particularly special. Add this to recommending a control scheme that actively handicaps you on one of it's puzzle and a bug that got dangerously close to breaking the game, and it has some seriously unnecessarily frustration baked into it. You can do far better and have something that lasts much longer then this.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Score: </b></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KBIHuq7Qyk/UN-GGA8j6CI/AAAAAAAAATw/A1QHtY6qUtc/s144/score%25205.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KBIHuq7Qyk/UN-GGA8j6CI/AAAAAAAAATw/A1QHtY6qUtc/s144/score%25205.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">5/10<br /></div><p><br /><b>System Requirements:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Intel Core i5 running at 1.7 Ghz</li><li>Geforce 600 series or AMD Radeon 5400 (must have 128 MB VRAM)</li><li>1 GB RAM</li><li>Windows Vista (with update KB971644) or Windows 7<br /></li><li>1 GB hard drive space</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 5 5600G<b> </b>running at 3.9 Ghz</li><li>16 GB RAM</li><li>Windows 11</li><li><a href="https://www.pdp.com/en/shop/controller/pdp-dx-wired-controller-red" target="_blank">PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)</a></li></ul><p><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/373990/Metrico/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-19131761692601132042024-03-13T23:18:00.000-04:002024-03-13T23:18:03.298-04:00March Extra-Life Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgESVmq8yg6hvq8ZkUh5w_1urEcPhtjyUO26uQ8he4-sTPsJyrl4s9FymIJdYJtwaYt0SmFGZ7AHUZZ84mRw5wj1AJIPxh7joo1s5olF5DdfkXlbIsFZJud1Bzy8b0bZgeGU5_M6GBKZ5dT4qoY4cRnwBedoVWMdhYvf2Yq_anudkMqOxs7WnSnQQMFUh8/s16000/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Hello everyone and welcome to our regular update. And we are continuing to march forward to the beloved weekend in November for <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" target="_blank">Extra-Life</a>! If you don't know what I'm talking about, welcome to my page, as I am pretty sure someone out there wishes I would shut up about this. I won't, but that's beside the point.<div><br /></div><div>As for what Extra-Life is, it is a charity event run by the Children's Miracle network. I've taken to comparing this gaming marathon to a real-world marathon. In those events, you collect sponsors and donations from them who will basically pay to help you run across a major city to support the cause you are got the sponsors to support.</div><div><br /></div><div>Extra-Life is a lot like that. In our case, however, we do not have to pick a cause. We already have: we are here to help sick kids. Children's Miracle Network takes care of the details. All we have to do is sign up and pick a hospital we are playing for, then get out there and get donations. Then, come November, we come together to play for 24 hours straight. This could be video games, board games, tabletop RPGs, card games, hell if you can make it work, I'm sure you could LARP for it (live action role playing for those of you who don't know). The only rule is, outside bathroom and food breaks, you don't stop playing.... and if you have to, you make up the time later.</div><div><br /></div><div>But what if you can't play that week? Well I can speak up to that as they tend to pick the same weekend my family sets for a get-together for birthday celebrations, so I take the rain-date option and usually play the next weekend, so believe me when I say this is not an issue. So don't let get in your way of playing games to help kids. Just come on in, check it out, sign-up and start helping kids today!</div><div><br /></div><div>And if you just can't play (or maybe don't play?), I'm not sure why you are here, but you can still help us. After all, we still need your help to help these kids. And we've made it as easy as possible. If you click the following link to reach our teampage, where a donate button will let you select who you want to donate under on the team (and therefore what hospital you wish to donate to help) and... well help us!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSector" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="161" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9TVWZUah7oFD47KG8lgUouXOhDR-o37lPbw9XKjuFLCRjgcKFiW6Q5u8p3lK3-ptl4lxI_1Gq4epCkueQmqkCP5zwEXMDn1IGkCpj-ujfltTTCJTnhAm5yuGLqdBGFnqVpTnvddqiSDZbb4T3eezIXRTAEI4DdIi1U3P9VkPKitiKywgYQOyNbrNRLg/s16000/SUPPORTME_small-320x161-9b6768fa-cc9e-442b-99c0-8144342059d1.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div>Thank you again for all your help. Joining or donating, we can't do it without you.</div><div><br /></div><div>- Megabyte</div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-36130074929433114822024-03-13T22:47:00.002-04:002024-03-13T22:47:24.905-04:00Golden Light (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2024/03/golden-light-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="152" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB_qKfvRUVJyPUdpNafUBegQ_dSQe988lxXo6LS9HwuJVambnymUREMBtEKIIzao2efbOsjI3R-XP7hcS0Ea4NY9QV-DyKy7VEce8wIn5m4SqxhJ-UBzqn7gVCgIPipBaUepzQtUd1O1KYfIq5mHratjNqAtZEHcfp7Lq89g-lz5603FybFoKmCyltcJw/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-12h58m46s582.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Here we have another game I probably would not have picked up had I bought myself. However, when Epic gave it away for free, I figured it looked just strange enough to give it a shot and a home in my backlog. Well, it definitely proved strange, but it was missing the staying power to really recommend you follow me through it.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story: </b>Honestly, I'm not sure I know what the story is for this game. There clearly is one with a start and about five possible endings, but what is actually going on being up for interpretation might just be one of the biggest understatements I could write on here.</p><p>Everything starts in what appears to be a picnic in a hilly field. You are with a young woman who talks about how the sun never sets, it just goes to the other side of the planet and gets metaphorical from there if you keep talking to her. There is really little else to do yet, but there is a single rose growing nearby. Picking it and bringing it back to the girl will have you witnessing a drastic change as the sky goes dark, a giant hole grows in the ground and a huge bloody hand reaches up, grabbing the young lady, and pulling her down below. But you can't leave it like this so you plunge in after her...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZC9zN6ON1gpHJM6cgfJWhLybQgczzF1QKh4fpSKMTWeyMFFAQxwTjRbeEGQAFdy__RjxF-t-ubxVaUvSEdGcDKQEWoiuHIXiNIk0hrzGysTnEeQyQZrDBR6RC0xoBjZ8G6dTmDvLBiRgDWnhtOfGviW0KpfajbsdiV5jGbLIJmAqt4DN6XDJ4ipXSa9M/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-12h59m08s643.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZC9zN6ON1gpHJM6cgfJWhLybQgczzF1QKh4fpSKMTWeyMFFAQxwTjRbeEGQAFdy__RjxF-t-ubxVaUvSEdGcDKQEWoiuHIXiNIk0hrzGysTnEeQyQZrDBR6RC0xoBjZ8G6dTmDvLBiRgDWnhtOfGviW0KpfajbsdiV5jGbLIJmAqt4DN6XDJ4ipXSa9M/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-12h59m08s643.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>...only to suddenly be in a rathole apartment with a single bed, a knocked over light, and a desk with a phone and a typewriter. You will have a moment to look around before you are suddenly no longer there, but in a 1920s elevator and the words "floor 0" on the screen.</p><p>And I am giving you a play-by-play of this opening because it sets the tone of disorientation the story absolutely revels in. The only real story you will get is between floors where you will visit random scenes presumably from your past, often with this same young woman where you will have a moment to explore or talk to her before being ripped back to the main gameplay. Occasionally you will meet a second young woman who might say something to hint at things... but I honestly was never able to make the connection. Just the hint that somewhere deep down there might be one.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkd2IxBIQboVGzwyx-OJ6iQoMUbjeeTE7nbH1lUPuxh5cTgUQOuy6oUcWBUQzLl2IJbv2tjEqK4D1GP_jTdif85mIwt-jVjUJzXzuSpDtwrDz3Z4MCTn0MAohquH46ZbP5JIUv_077rWFAH_edoqLsZ4YzpjMcHOagMJwuWSFHaM8U7QENZBgSCWSkORQ/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-13h00m09s132.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkd2IxBIQboVGzwyx-OJ6iQoMUbjeeTE7nbH1lUPuxh5cTgUQOuy6oUcWBUQzLl2IJbv2tjEqK4D1GP_jTdif85mIwt-jVjUJzXzuSpDtwrDz3Z4MCTn0MAohquH46ZbP5JIUv_077rWFAH_edoqLsZ4YzpjMcHOagMJwuWSFHaM8U7QENZBgSCWSkORQ/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-13h00m09s132.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But that story it's connecting to is just as vague. You will collect pieces and basically all I can tell for certain is the game is metaphorically connected to this woman who the game only calls simply "she" and whatever happened to bring you here, it will do nothing more then hint at. Nor when you get the ending will it be any less vague since each ending conflicts with the others, not just in outcome, but even in the relationship hinted at... and explaining the possibilities would be a spoiler to anyone who is still interested in following this up.</p><p>But as far as I'm concerned, I think I have to call this basically non-sense hoping to be passed off as something deep.</p><p>4/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> The first thing this game is going to show you is it is one of those low-poly games that's mimicking the look you might have seen in the 32-bit console era. The world you are in is low-polygon and everything is made of large chunky pixels. Hell, if you don't turn off the setting, the game will even display the world in low-resolution, further completing this retro-picture.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIYqEbzFrOfy-z38pXb_x8jqwlqwOFDGVOoMxPUb-Vo0p548vzh8ThBmoYVDhjdtM8_lPzQCFDljjMH6aMcITmKOVwa7R2FSdmvJdHExlzRTU6Mqq8ZdUmgbxe1vMT6XX4y99b-jHc4lH7fhtRPQ_pQIei-wqoSpyBQUE_Y2z-JnWEmJqVHR9jWLVkHw/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-12h59m41s188.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIYqEbzFrOfy-z38pXb_x8jqwlqwOFDGVOoMxPUb-Vo0p548vzh8ThBmoYVDhjdtM8_lPzQCFDljjMH6aMcITmKOVwa7R2FSdmvJdHExlzRTU6Mqq8ZdUmgbxe1vMT6XX4y99b-jHc4lH7fhtRPQ_pQIei-wqoSpyBQUE_Y2z-JnWEmJqVHR9jWLVkHw/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-12h59m41s188.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>You will travel through dark corridors, starting with an old decrepit set of corridors, complete with beaten wood panels and frayed wallpaper with ugly green patterns. For the most part it's not well lit, using monitors of local computers as a light source as often as actual lighting... and on some occasions less then that. It's also littered with those computers along with other artifacts, like piles of books (organized and unorganized), bits of paper, and... meat. Literal slabs of meat make up walls you can press through, pulsing and writhing as a living thing might.... and these slabs are not alone. Many distorted and messed up horrors share this world with you, and when they reveal themselves, they will use the low-tech look to it's absolute max to be as disturbing as it possibly can.... and this is just the first biome.</p><p>There are several such places you will visit before the game is over, each having their own flavor of hellishness, so you will likely not get board with how things look before your time with this game is over.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Going with the rather disjointed and disturbing look is an equally disturbing soundscape... at least at first. Do not expect a lot of music while playing, at least not anything truly considered a soundtrack. There are notes and all, if you can hear it, it likely shares the world with you. Sometimes there is a piano out there, sometimes speech clips, sometimes garlges and roars... and who knows whatever noises creatures not of our world are making. It's frankly disconcerting when you first start playing. But you won't take too long before you learn what noises are things to watch out for and others are just slabs of meat nearby... breathing. Unfortunately by this point all shock value is gone, and with it any genuine unease the noise could cause, but it's nice while it lasts</p><p>Also, do not expect much in the way of voice acting in this game. Yes there are voices, but most of it is just the creatures either making noises or saying things like "kill... kill...." in some cases. Or you might even caught bits of public domain horror movies used... but aside from that it's all garbled like an old game just putting a "voice" to the text on your screen.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> Golden Light is a first person horror rouge-like and arguably one of the most bizarre games I've ever played, rivalling even <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2019/02/ghostdream-pc-review.html">GhostDream</a>. But to boil it down, you will make your way through a dungeon made of floors going ever deeper into "The Gut" a literal land made entirely of meat. Even the walls that give each area in the Gut it's character look only carries that look on it's surface. If you hit it, it will bleed. And hit it enough you can dig past that surface to tunnel anywhere you like within the meat.</p><p>Of course the world is not thrilled with being burrowed through, however, and will spawn new enemies if you piss it off enough, making the game harder and harder... until you either clear the biome you are in or die. But death is not the end for you, for when you die (and you will most likely do so more then a few times) you will be able to go back to try again in a newly generated version of the floor you were on (the Meat remembers). But this can wait for a little bit. For now, you will find yourself fairly unarmed as you will lose just about everything you found during your run, but safe. Looking around, your new location is a graveyard in the center of the area surrounding (and probably above) the Gut... the Meat Garden. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVqJMh_S5jExcZ0LilaUCF4uXnetfgzT4fpXT_GHCaH5rDPxyJDa-vkTa90RaCoJjHsySa4FDnIP8w9AR80nxB3kvp9Fn_ZxYY4k08m_RWbsVfmi_maQEK8FEfOCb0scbspKsthtHJGtWhSM7pBeSPVso3TtPajzcOAy1dTmLmgkjZ1QOUhyphenhyphen9W2NhU6g/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-13h00m40s244.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVqJMh_S5jExcZ0LilaUCF4uXnetfgzT4fpXT_GHCaH5rDPxyJDa-vkTa90RaCoJjHsySa4FDnIP8w9AR80nxB3kvp9Fn_ZxYY4k08m_RWbsVfmi_maQEK8FEfOCb0scbspKsthtHJGtWhSM7pBeSPVso3TtPajzcOAy1dTmLmgkjZ1QOUhyphenhyphen9W2NhU6g/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-13h00m40s244.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Here is where you can relatively relax. There are enemies in the Garden, much like the Gut, but they are weaker here, and there are plenty of roses to find, which you can take advantage of to gain the "regen" status just by holding one, letting you heal in the process if you need it. The place is vast and open, unlike the levels in the Gut, and you may find upgrades out there before venturing back inside (you will find them while in a run as well, but building up resources before you go is usually a good idea). These come in a few forms: items, weapons, mementos, and quest items.</p><p>Weapons and items are the most standard here, as you carry them in both hands, using commands to scroll though items or switch which of the two weapons (or maps or shields) you are carrying. And while weapons break, their use to attack enemies or defend yourself becomes quite obvious. Items, on the other hand, will have an effect you can use by throwing them. In both cases, however, can be eaten to heal, even if you will have to deal with the effects of whatever you devoured. You heard me right, you will find yourself fairly regularly eating your weapons to survive your trips through the Gut.</p><p>In addition to this, mementos will be extra powers and mutations you pick up, taking the form of photos you will find throughout your adventure. When you so, you will be given a choice of two options and these can be anything from slowing down your jumps to increasing your speed by growing more legs to gaining the power to shoot lasers from your eyes "if you squint" and many more insane powers. However, these too, like your weapons and items, will all go away if you die.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIm1JDB3mTvG7qLJOzQvMLUcI_rVtNlO0Yfp_6Gp9u-vCyDP649s5mQGTLxaX7emUV2hS501IFGsQ3WKE_Hvjha1hVcBUcHHCFIx3qVe_h29J4PMyxoJUzZXDX0HFH8BWvbIgJ0K_s-CUIyYF6cgQ4X4T_ywMQCWGhU9Ln7RSOdvl8c27FV7ZxsJ8Xqig/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-13h06m55s375.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIm1JDB3mTvG7qLJOzQvMLUcI_rVtNlO0Yfp_6Gp9u-vCyDP649s5mQGTLxaX7emUV2hS501IFGsQ3WKE_Hvjha1hVcBUcHHCFIx3qVe_h29J4PMyxoJUzZXDX0HFH8BWvbIgJ0K_s-CUIyYF6cgQ4X4T_ywMQCWGhU9Ln7RSOdvl8c27FV7ZxsJ8Xqig/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-13-13h06m55s375.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>However, the last items are the exception to this: quest items. If you are lucky enough to find these things, you get to keep them forever... or at least until you use them. These include She's body parts, mix tapes, golden keys and meat, as well as medicines. Most of these are story items, but others are enhancements, like extending your health bar by having pieces of golden meat, or the ability to unlock gates in the Meat Garden by using a golden key up. But the medicine item is perhaps the best in the bunch.... because by using one, you can remove a memento you don't like before you die... or even better, cause one to forever follow you through death if you like the effect of it. This is the one way you can really take control of your runs, so if you find one and a power you really like using, lock it down.</p><p>And as noticed in the sound section, you will have a LOT of company trying to kill you while making these runs. Everything from doors with spikes that randomly decide to squirm and slash (or even fake doors getting to close to will snap like a trap) to giant meat-piles who will likely want to kill (or hug?) you: including several bosses at the end of each biome. Completing a new biome will earn you a trip back to the Meat Garden keeping whatever you have left from your run as well as a new item: a bodypart of She. The first time will give you her head your ultimate goal will be to collect all the parts on your quest to finish the game. It will be a challenge, I assure you.</p><p>Unfortunately this is also where I have my issues with the game. A hard game is fun, yes, but I found myself running out of new things to see while trying to make my way through the game well before I finished. In short, it's a bit of a detriment as the new and exciting becomes the same old well before you finish your journey.</p><p>6/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>For as weird as this game is I can not be sure, but I THINK this game ran bug-free.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Digital Rights Management:</b> This is not a game that has DRM attached, at least at all times. If you are playing through Steam it uses it as DRM, however the version on the Epic Game Store apparently has nothing.</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> This game made one hell of a first impression. From the first time a potted plant slowly slid up to me before exploding into a man-sized meat pile with giant arms moaning as it tried to grab me, to the absolutely disorientating and confusing sound effects I just could not be sure if it was something to look for or to avoid, the world was wild and left me paranoid of the world. It was simply astounding, if confusing as hell.</p><p>But then as I got used to it, I learned what to look and listen for, and the charm began to wear off. The same happened as I picked up more and more mementos and finally began to repeat them. Add to this I managed to see just about all areas, enemies, and bosses, and I just found myself not really wanting to spend the effort. The spectacle grew thin and had very little to back it once that charm wore off... not even a real story to want to see how it ends.</p><p>If you like rouge-likes, I haven't played many, but <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/02/ziggurat-pc-review.html">I have played better</a>. If you like horror games, I've played few with the toure-de-force this game starts with, but unlike this game, <a href="http://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2012/10/amnesia-dark-descent-pc-review.html">many</a> <a href="http://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2017/11/corpse-party-pc-review.html">that</a> <a href="http://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2014/05/deadspace-2-pc-review.html">remain</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/04/in-sound-mind-pc-review.html">fascinating</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-last-door-pc-review.html">well</a> <a href="http://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2018/08/layers-of-fear-pc-review.html">past</a> <a href="http://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2012/01/limbo-pc-review.html">that</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2022/12/scorn-pc-review.html">first</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/08/serena-pc-review.html">impression</a>.</p><p>I just can't recommend picking this one up for any other choices you have.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sCb0J51_TRg/UN-GGILBr2I/AAAAAAAAATs/sCbjojo5TZw/s144/score%25206.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sCb0J51_TRg/UN-GGILBr2I/AAAAAAAAATs/sCbjojo5TZw/s144/score%25206.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>6/10</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></blockquote><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Intel Core i5 4000+</li><li>4 GB RAM </li><li>NVidia GeForce with at least 1 GB VRAM</li><li>2 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 7</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/golden-light-f543b3" target="_blank">Epic Games</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-2394318865970527612024-03-06T13:24:00.004-05:002024-03-06T13:24:44.983-05:00A Hat in Time (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2024/03/a-hat-in-time-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp7WuBEsPBTIaLG9VtGmOzmjriK7EeSdjehDFrDyvn15GMp-DXOe5KB5DRMthcsv-F5nKwW5uL_AdlO3qVzh0D_11n_Fx_PKJ4M9PjFedD9fvd9B5XnhzMqfbUL_s777U1CMy6YlWq4nbooCKZx2yrnNxrptG9KeXLuskc3o101UDPBhKs_ZqLxFR6LAc/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h57m02s688.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>I honestly can not remember when this game entered my library. If I had to hazard a guess, it would have been back when I was subscribed to Humble Bundle and decided "yeah this game could be fun." Unfortunately, while the themes indeed were, the game under it just fell short.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> This should have been a simple and uneventful trip home for Hat Kid. She had set the course and turned in for some much needed sleep while the space ship traveled along. But this was simply not to be as an alarm woke her quite rudely from her slumber. A quick look at the ship's consoles told the girl everything was fine, however, leaving her to find the cause in the form of a man tapping on the glass. Her ship had traveled over an inhabited planet, and the Mafia on this planet wanted her to pay a toll for it. Denying their rep his pay did not sit well with the man, so he busted through the glass windshield to take it and physics took care of the rest as Hat Kid and the time pieces that fuel her ship were sucked to the surface.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYfzW-GvlHzNAtbYfO9626gi_JgNbS_RiVNCpxOviXxiK1Peo6JKxOX_-liNTCKvOJbw8vYv7W5765A-H4GRa__d698OSKY0Fu19bwbss95pX2BM_CweAIzk5wOZJJkEzajAvwgviLEQPSRWJRWRxHHmxF94hFYOh1iGg4dVAtZvZJhd-49Ih-KyO8Yw/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h57m27s957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYfzW-GvlHzNAtbYfO9626gi_JgNbS_RiVNCpxOviXxiK1Peo6JKxOX_-liNTCKvOJbw8vYv7W5765A-H4GRa__d698OSKY0Fu19bwbss95pX2BM_CweAIzk5wOZJJkEzajAvwgviLEQPSRWJRWRxHHmxF94hFYOh1iGg4dVAtZvZJhd-49Ih-KyO8Yw/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h57m27s957.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And that is where you are. It will be your job to play as Hat Kid and find her time pieces so the poor girl can refuel and get home, traveling across several lands in this globetrotting adventure. It is a fairly simple story, but that works very well for the game. It also works exceptionally well to showcase the other stories going on, as each land you visit has it's own issues: from the island she landed on overrun by Mafia to a haunted woods and beyond, and each one is a complete mini episode.</p><p>If you are looking for a complex story of any sort, you have come to the wrong place, but what is here works in that "Saturday morning cartoon" kind of way, so sit back, relax, and enjoy like you might have as a kid.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> And you can expect the look of the game to reflect that same morning cartoon energy the story does. The world is made of several bright and vibrant locations (yes even that haunted forest) which is simply appealing to see, if a little simplistic. Every place carries it's theme brilliantly as well, be it the island run by the Mafia where it's littered with buildings being constructed and oddly inviting and threatening at the same time restaurants (most of which mix pasta with whatever they are making), or a mountain village sparsely spaced among the clouds. It's a very pretty set of landscapes and just carries that cartoon energy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZL1k58eIde9Jmzy4qXTg2VAKesOjQ6z2b9FRlrCfICVPCHJeNm4PpTiIntv9lMS8JT6dtc1xHDGTFEqpe72KGNHyN8_0y3oJq17QYW_h_puchBuFdhZWYG7QuCrjtfXnpZB4cwp5eZ9MLD6CqbS5okvaCDXhfshdUtt5XFiiuI1yF5JQANB4Toev0ESk/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h57m38s768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZL1k58eIde9Jmzy4qXTg2VAKesOjQ6z2b9FRlrCfICVPCHJeNm4PpTiIntv9lMS8JT6dtc1xHDGTFEqpe72KGNHyN8_0y3oJq17QYW_h_puchBuFdhZWYG7QuCrjtfXnpZB4cwp5eZ9MLD6CqbS5okvaCDXhfshdUtt5XFiiuI1yF5JQANB4Toev0ESk/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h57m38s768.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And the characters also carry this note and style brilliantly. That mafia village is filled with big tough guys stomping around at twice Hat Kid's height, sometimes menacingly, sometimes dancing with a sign (often threatening yet humorous) or even enjoying the hell out of their life when alone (almost like they think no one is looking). Meanwhile oversized birds with angry eyes chirp and bounce around and sleepy raccoons float about till their balloon pops and they fall to the ground (usually aimed at you). It's an almost innocent look that permeated the cartoons kids watched in the late 80s/early 90s. Then you add in Hat Kid herself to complete the deal.</p><p>Hat Kid is a little girl who's about as expressive as remotely possible, whether that's sticking her tongue out at a potential enemy, grinning from ear to ear after saving an old man from being beaten up, or even a nervous look of fear when stuck dealing with a haunted house. She comes off as a rambunctious little kid the likes of which were popular in cartoons and games of a time everything seems to keep throwing back to.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJT3oHffW747zWrTKzQfqjKyRc-Yf_nkytbh2KON9ufqhiK0ubjCQi8ga1gERf4iP3rMVf8W_gZqLh7C3a-p1KVsZ95rtlJPXzxKUyKCyhs-TJTLl1BZPjoBlKtit9f0-trYKrHNZ0ittoJkJJ28u8R2t04QYrnbcw900KZVsV4E5inkoFNepQmdaEn0/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h58m25s251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJT3oHffW747zWrTKzQfqjKyRc-Yf_nkytbh2KON9ufqhiK0ubjCQi8ga1gERf4iP3rMVf8W_gZqLh7C3a-p1KVsZ95rtlJPXzxKUyKCyhs-TJTLl1BZPjoBlKtit9f0-trYKrHNZ0ittoJkJJ28u8R2t04QYrnbcw900KZVsV4E5inkoFNepQmdaEn0/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h58m25s251.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Although I would be amiss if I didn't also note the other obvious inspiration here: 3D Mario games. If you've played anything by Nintendo since the N64 was their current system, you will see this even faster then the memories of dry cereal in front of the TV to start your weekend properly as a little tyke. In fact the moment the UI shows you your health meter, you will immediately think of the Mario titles, which also clearly have left their mark. But overall the whole picture is absolutely adorable... </p><p>It's just a shame that it does have some issues on the way due to the camera. For starters, it doesn't handle tight spaces very well letting itself get crushed against a wall easily, insisting on staying directly in line Hat Kid even when there is no room, resulting in her absolutely covering your screen when this happens. Generally it will turn her transparent to make up for it, but even this is done with a horrible dithering effect that really makes it difficult to see anyway. It really does take away from everything else and this adorable little game doesn't stand as strong as the art should let it because of things like this.</p><p>6/10 </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Expect the music to carry the morning cartoon feel just as much as the story and the game. Like many games today, it is orchestrated, but the tone is not some grandiose adventure. Rather, it feels like it's a note on Hat Kid herself, energetic and precocious as often as not. And yet it also goes out of it's way for the world you are in, taking mysterious tones when in the forest, or going all out when mingling with your adoring fans. Frankly the music is spot on! Maybe a bit too "video gamey" to want to hear beyond the game, but an absolute joy to hear while playing and perfect for every moment while playing.</p><p>And this feel will continue into the world's sound effects too! This entire game's motif is "cute" and the sounds only enhance this where they apply. But the real enhancement here is voice work. Surprisingly, most of this game IS voice acted, leaving Hat Kid herself as really the only silent character. From the Mafia guys who start the game right down to the last world. Every line in this game is delivered perfectly and you will quickly find favorite characters. (If you know me, you will figure out who was mine VERY shortly after meeting them.)</p><p>Overall, its a great audio space and just oozes character non-stop.</p><p>9/10</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> Sadly it's in this category that ultimately A Hat in Time fails. At it's core this is a 3rd person collect-a-thon much like you would see in the golden days of Nintendo 64, taking especially heavy influence from none other then Super Mario 64. From a 3rd person perspective you will platform your way across the various lands in your quest to collect the time-pieces so you can return home like you would have had Mafia man not broken in to try to collect a toll from you. For the most part you will find one of these pieces at the end of each level, much like the stars you collect in Nintendo's title. And also like that game, you will need to collect a number shown on the various doors of your spaceship in order to access anything behind it, including a telescope that will let you see and access another land. You even have a substitute for coins you collect along the way (gems).</p><p>However this is also one of the first places you will find the game different, in that you don't have lives to get a new one every 100 gems. Rather you will find these as a currency in the game, which will let you buy some upgrades in the form of badges. Each badge will offer you an effect or tool you can use while playing and you start only being able to equip one. However you quickly find out if you buy safety pins, you will be able to add an additional one, and you will likely want to do that. Unfortunately there are not many badges that are worth buying but the ones that are work VERY well together, so using them all at once is a real benefit. Still all of these are optional since the only badge you will absolutely need before the game is over gives you a hooked rope to swing on... and you will find it rather then buy it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiK12B7iTTpRPjNxZnLl-KlGhhFdbDKaiW2r0e_yQOvk-olFhlIUHgzbWImJWpYOi23a2WyxptaWYVUHGtGBQEeKgiZF-xSEh8E_PHBAzb3FA7ALZMpZuW3k5bwfCj1udi3yrxtUWvp3_bNgZupYEy4yMTU8VzMgjeRaAfJiYmZ1wN-pzCckPYsrZRHHw/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h59m34s324.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiK12B7iTTpRPjNxZnLl-KlGhhFdbDKaiW2r0e_yQOvk-olFhlIUHgzbWImJWpYOi23a2WyxptaWYVUHGtGBQEeKgiZF-xSEh8E_PHBAzb3FA7ALZMpZuW3k5bwfCj1udi3yrxtUWvp3_bNgZupYEy4yMTU8VzMgjeRaAfJiYmZ1wN-pzCckPYsrZRHHw/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-11h59m34s324.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But you will actually need these gems as well, as some levels will require you to spend them to unlock them, so if you wish to optimize your play, you will likely need to watch your gem-count. If not, it's no big deal as they can be very easy to go back and collect what you need, especially from early levels.</p><p>In addition to this you will also get multiple hats as you play, each having a different power you will need access to to finish the game before you are done. You get them by collecting yarn which you will find all over the place. Each new kind will offer you the ability to create a new hat provided you can find enough yarn to do so. But again, don't worry too much about that as yarn is also fairly common and as long as one is the kind you need, you are ready to go once you have enough. When you are done you will have about 6 of them to pick from, but unfortunately most of them are really only good for specific points they are needed for while maybe one or two have a good general use. Still, they work as puzzle devices over all.</p><p>But sadly this is about all the game does really good for gameplay, because the actual platforming is just not really there. Simply put, you never feel fully in control due to how Hat Kid seems to decide on here own if she will jump off walls or try to climb them or worse where she will go when she bounces off of an enemy. Normally this isn't too bad, but there are times when you will be required to do these things with a precision just not available, so expect to die a lot to the environment.</p><p>Similarly, jumping can be tough to aim as well due to poor ways to identify where you are landing. Normally it's not bad, but the game features the ability to aim for things like clothes lines and telephone wires, which are exceptionally thin and exceptionally easy to jump off of.</p><p>And the game seems to understand it is failing this step as the checkpoints you come back to after dying are very generous, as well as offered hearts to refill your health once you get through a part that heavily requires you to make these kinds of leaps (falling to your death will cost you one of four health points rather then restart your attempt). It would have been a lot better to work on making the controls work better rather then putting a bandage on it like this, however.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwS8Cgn-Ofm9xiOknEpcrhR9XTrCGNPVLaDMI9k7o2SGQX2e42KGxgBo2eq_yhNTECwyGwmI14P840v-G3AYtUHd8K10neV2XKDK2MEahsPP9GDygrGXDWRlbToRb_BCD8lAnflmrTgbMQGfio8-SF7G_eytr27RJy7-u34b7TmHQr0Ql4oTqvWCJdXbo/s500/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-12h01m54s959.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwS8Cgn-Ofm9xiOknEpcrhR9XTrCGNPVLaDMI9k7o2SGQX2e42KGxgBo2eq_yhNTECwyGwmI14P840v-G3AYtUHd8K10neV2XKDK2MEahsPP9GDygrGXDWRlbToRb_BCD8lAnflmrTgbMQGfio8-SF7G_eytr27RJy7-u34b7TmHQr0Ql4oTqvWCJdXbo/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-03-04-12h01m54s959.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But while we are talking about it's failures in control, we should also consider two seriously strange choices that are incredibly detrimental. First is the fall down mechanic. Sometimes, Hat Kid can be knocked over or fall down, and when this happens, she can't move. To get out of this, you will have to jump, and it at least seems like you need to wait a moment before you are allowed to do so. Normally this is annoying, but there are bosses that will knock you over and leave you sitting there to just take extra damage before you can do anything about it. It is a frustrating experience to put it mildly.</p><p>But to put the final touch on this game, the camera itself can also be a nightmare beyond what I mentioned in the graphics section. If you play this with a controller (and being a Mario 64 style game, I can't imagine you not wanting to do this), you will not be able to look down. I shit you not. Until you fix a setting in the camera section of the game, controller looking around will NOT let your camera look down.... at all. And it's not like that setting is obvious. It's called Top-Down Camera and you have to set it to "none." It makes no sense and it's really kinda stupid.</p><p>4/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> Once again, we have another game that for all it's flaws actually ran flawlessly.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Digital Rights Management:</b> The only DRM this game has in it is if you are playing the Steam copy. Here, the game will need Steam itself to run. If you are playing on the gog version, there is nothing at all (as one would expect).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Overall: </b> I really wanted to like this game. It looked like a fun little game and had a sense of humor that permeated the game and legitimately made me smile more often then not. But the game underneath it is just not as good as it needs to be to support this and well below the standards of yesteryear it's taking it's inspirations from. The precision of the controls, despite the game demanding more from them, is just not up to that demand. And then we have some just plain strange and poor choices that get in the way of playing. The game frankly trips over itself.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Score:</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KBIHuq7Qyk/UN-GGA8j6CI/AAAAAAAAATw/A1QHtY6qUtc/s144/score%25205.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KBIHuq7Qyk/UN-GGA8j6CI/AAAAAAAAATw/A1QHtY6qUtc/s144/score%25205.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">5/10<br /></div><p><br /><b>System Requirements:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Anything 3.0 Ghz or faster</li><li>Anything that supports Direct X 9.0c</li><li>4 GB RAM</li><li>Windows XP SP3/Vista/7/8/10 (64-bit only)<br /></li><li>8 GB hard drive space</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 5 5600G<b> </b>running at 3.9 Ghz</li><li>16 GB RAM</li><li>Windows 11</li><li><a href="https://www.pdp.com/en/shop/controller/pdp-dx-wired-controller-red" target="_blank">PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)</a></li></ul><p><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/253230/A_Hat_in_Time/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-88380128852795648482024-02-27T22:42:00.004-05:002024-02-27T22:42:55.084-05:00Persona 5 Strikers (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2024/02/persona-5-strikers-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQd-skY3KjgVOtECO2es3Qp-d6S4haBms8RffQ6ubfLc-y66vspDl4g_2IE05INpy59KGp06gY-TTTfdcIjjwRwu5bvJRskLyonljCcMRcb8B_xP3SITR0Pp0YOXPZhir_SwrG8GwxyKsGd6XqlDRLnTrOs77BjlG9bovwtNmYv10gsPXa5JdmJJ5eZ80/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h14m31s249.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>This game was going to happen eventually, though to be fair, I wound up playing it on a different machine then I expected to. When it was announced, I knew it wasn't a traditional RPG, but it wasn't a dancing sim (like the Persona 4 offered as spinoffs to it's portable playing fans there for a while) and I honestly have had almost nothing but great experiences with the entire franchise. However, since the PC version would not have a physical copy to go with the rest of my collection, I figured I was going to wind up getting it on Switch. Then Steam came along and did what it does best... sales. So I picked it up and in time, began to play.</p><p>It was definitely worth my time, despite showing me why the game series it's play belongs to will never be for me. Step inside.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> It's been several months since the events of <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/12/persona-5-ps3-review.html" target="_blank">Persona 5</a> (and I am not going to explain them to you since you really should play it for yourself) and since you had moved back home. During that time, you have gone back to your regular school and had a regular life for the most part. And while you may be done with the madness you found here last time, you have never been so eager to get back to Tokyo. For it is now summer vacation and you intend to spend it with your friends and former conspirators: the Phantom Thieves!</p><p>And what a welcome home! You are greeted with a surprise party announcing your return and immediately the eager gang begin planning on how to ensure even easier contact when you all eventually have to part again for school as well as figuring out just what your first full day of vacation will entail. The first problem is easily solved by introducing you to EMMA, the hot new social media AI available for cellphones and it doesn't take long to figure out the second. Everyone quickly reaches the conclusion that there is no better way to start than with a barbeque, so that is your next job: In the morning you and Ryuji will go to Shibuya and buy the groceries to throw a proper feast in honor of all that is to come.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ9IqTXLsoMZrEWecyPrBAWB4vAMCpyyNH9zVyZUGmO6AxzOdHzlFe68hYG20sIUkU6srRByCWEFOjA9sIJaKMkdS6CXTnwmEbUwj9hSL_JyaC807bVohEgyRPk2_8gJIy-nPOfZdFiMAl-zRWGurz0Yd-FQiqN5FcB9Qe_LZlJbz307VC6yGaDdoKyY/s500/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h17m25s314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ9IqTXLsoMZrEWecyPrBAWB4vAMCpyyNH9zVyZUGmO6AxzOdHzlFe68hYG20sIUkU6srRByCWEFOjA9sIJaKMkdS6CXTnwmEbUwj9hSL_JyaC807bVohEgyRPk2_8gJIy-nPOfZdFiMAl-zRWGurz0Yd-FQiqN5FcB9Qe_LZlJbz307VC6yGaDdoKyY/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h17m25s314.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But this is also when things start to go wrong. While there, a crowd gathers around a new fashion store due to the owner is there in person to celebrate it's grand opening. She is a famous clothing designer named Alice, known for cute looks and running with her name as the theme of her work. As such, Ryuji insists on going to have a look, but it is you that catches the celebrity's eye. As part of her publicity stunt, she's giving everyone cards, inviting her fans to join her on EMMA for additional benefits, handing you the card personally. And the starstruck Ryuji decided to add her then and there, causing the phone to do something that should have been impossible since it should have been gone after your last adventure: send the two of you to the Metaverse where a new ruler resides, and she is interested in why unlike everyone else pulled in, she can't take your desires to add to her trove. </p><p>Further complicating issues for you is also a renewed interest from the police. Lately a whole wave of "strange and complete personality changing" behavior has been happening across Japan, looking strongly like when you changed the hearts of so many vile human beings during that last adventure, so you can guess who suspect number 1 is.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5uV_Oidu9-xXUW7G3SGC0xrCQCVLmOJPuTDpDDnUlUG-mARD3BtS2E5weOyleYN5ELIQ4qalgAHlIJkM6GUT-n2vpKHGWvW7AwBZpGhe4_zAXmVV4ObeT-6d0YAXE_ZvgWi_pBgqpAdrz6cSTyylbJiIpyakxamtdNn3DYdEDzr3gBrPsFVNaD0GtJ0/s500/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h17m08s726.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5uV_Oidu9-xXUW7G3SGC0xrCQCVLmOJPuTDpDDnUlUG-mARD3BtS2E5weOyleYN5ELIQ4qalgAHlIJkM6GUT-n2vpKHGWvW7AwBZpGhe4_zAXmVV4ObeT-6d0YAXE_ZvgWi_pBgqpAdrz6cSTyylbJiIpyakxamtdNn3DYdEDzr3gBrPsFVNaD0GtJ0/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h17m08s726.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>This murky start will send the Phantom Thieves on a road-trip across Japan in a quest to find out what is going on, how they can help put an end to it, and in the process clear their name before the cops encircle the team and bring you in particular back to jail. This truly will be an interesting and busy school vacation.</p><p>If you are getting Final Fantasy 15 vibes in this setup, I do not blame you. This description certainly warrants comparisons, and this from someone who hasn't played the SquareEnix game. But the road-trip vehicle fits the plot of the game very well, as each location not only includes new challenges to face, but new clues to figure out the big picture as the game leaks the details to you along side your character and his friends. It's a well written story, if a bit formulaic, carrying itself on the moment-to-moment very well between obvious story beats. If anything this one might also be a bit more straight-forward then the last game as any side-stories that came with any side-missions then are gone here.... but we will get into that later. Suffice it to say the story is really good in it's own right, even if it misses those side-tones the previous game let you sink into to your heart's content.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> If you played Persona 5 before playing this (and as I keep saying, you absolutely should), you already have a VERY good idea of just how this game is going to look. In fact it is possible to argue where possible, this game used as much of it's previous title's assets as it could making the two games look strikingly similar. But if you haven't played it (seriously, why are you still here? Go play that then come back!), you will wander various locations from a third person perspective with the camera zeroed in on you. These locations will vary as you travel through slices of several cities in Japan, and while I can not speak for anything about authenticity, it feels right for the world, and looks great doing so. </p><p>Sadly the people here do not fair so well. There are usually lots of them wandering the world with you, which is a welcome addition since these are generally supposed to be, well... cities. But they are generally background in the most literal sense... basically just enough detail let them be part of the scene, and little more then that. On the one hand, it lets you focus on the characters that matter (usually you and the other Phantom Theives), but on the other if you let yourself pay any attention to them, it will break the illusion as they are clearly not so much population, but scenery. They even fade out when they get close to you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaDmlvySzPkrTJ2CFxol9i0bPzIMqO9qtTARytiaR7aaCwt5QpIQNRgToEsrPYWajbVEMaZxUMqsSBptt85HS8cJQgmrE-D7t10cdEMQz0SyBek2Gswez5tAQ00Rt8s6xZrsHPf1d5bKv3N3D6DecoJhOJxCYLcHWTi9f6TUihQSkMxT6ceyQm3kb3bI/s500/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h15m25s674.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaDmlvySzPkrTJ2CFxol9i0bPzIMqO9qtTARytiaR7aaCwt5QpIQNRgToEsrPYWajbVEMaZxUMqsSBptt85HS8cJQgmrE-D7t10cdEMQz0SyBek2Gswez5tAQ00Rt8s6xZrsHPf1d5bKv3N3D6DecoJhOJxCYLcHWTi9f6TUihQSkMxT6ceyQm3kb3bI/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h15m25s674.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But all those downsides disappear when you switch to the metaverse. Things really open up with a parallel version of the city you are in, warped by the ruler (this time called a Monarch) of the area and populated by the enemies of the franchise: shadows.</p><p>These take many forms throughout the game, wandering the world as dark formed security gaurds and drones before becoming other more deformed creatures. They are ambiguous, everywhere, and fit right into the altered versions of the cities they reside in. And then you get into combat.</p><p>Some of these creatures will remain exactly as they were, while others will immediately morph into deamonic forms. Well, in other games of the SMT franchise, they would be called deamons, but in either case, the cast of enemies vary to massive amounts, from the lowliest deformed slime to the adorable snowman who mascots for Atlus, to massive gods and deamons of various mythlogies. There is no shortage of variety in what you will find to do battle with, all modeled very well.</p><p>Still I also have to point out another detail that I had issues with. I am not sure if it was because of the settings I was using (in order to run it on my media center which has no GPU card at all, I turned the settings down the lowest), but often when in cutscenes with a still background instead of a camera to move around, that painted background was very low resolution. The effect was like when you use an emulator to upscale a PlayStation game that uses 3D models and a painted background: all the characters and items are rendered as you would expect, but anything that is just painted holds the old resolution with some effect blurring the pixels and making those models look out of place. It's not bad enough to take you out of the game, but it does feel off in the same way.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> The story of the audio in this game is much like the visuals. To keep the feel as close to the first game's as possible, they clearly lifted as much as they could from it here. This would be an obvious move to do with sound effects since these cover the normal steps, thwaps, clangs, or any other sound needed to tell the story in cutscenes or battle or anything else. And these fit the roll as well as one can expect.</p><p>More outstanding is the music, which was basically also lifted <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/12/persona-5-ps3-review.html" target="_blank">from the previous title</a>. You can expect to hear a lot of the same jazzy tones for more mellow moments offered before and they sound just as good as they ever did. Likewise when things get mysterious or intense, the same ramping up as well. It wears it's connections so much on it's sleeve I basically could let that review do all the talking.</p><p>Even the voices that are here all seem to be the original cast (at least the best I can tell). Everyone once again brought their A game and you will be right at home with The Phantom Thieves for this second outing. If anything, I would argue some of the old cast got even better... for example I don't think Haru's matter-of-factness was half as well used in the original title as it is here and many of her lines had me grinning from ear to ear. GREAT showing!</p><p>But this time, everyone is kinda outshined by the newest members of the cast: Sophia and Zenkichi. Sophia is an AI with no memories to call her own but one single desire: to become the companion to humanity. She has no idea what this even means or how to do it or any idea about how people work, and this is what makes her so fascinating. I have always loved characters who go on this journey the voice actress behind her pinned it perfectly. Watching Sophia grow is simply amazing.</p><p>But the real absolute joy to behold Zenkichi. He's a detective working the cases and effectively the boss the Phantom Thieves are forced to follow the orders of in this journey. He is that perfect combination of in control and over the top... so long as he is holding the cards. Haru in particular seems to have a way of disarming him (much to my delight) but watching his antics is DEFINATELY one of the highlights of this game for me. His voice actor should take a bow in particular.</p><p>8/10</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> And this is where Strikers differentiates itself heavily from the previous title. For the most part, this game is divided into locations more then days. Yes, you are on a calendar again, but unlike the last game, it really doesn't matter since time no longer passes with your actions so much as with goals met in game: be it a boss beaten or collecting clues or even just a downtime day for the crew. While it was really hard to run out of time in Persona 5, it is literally impossible this time.</p><p>What you will be doing at each location is also fairly formulaic: most of the time you will find out about a Jail (the dungeons of this game), do an investigation to see who likely runs it (as they make themselves obvious quite quickly... as in within minutes of arriving most of the time) and the keyword to go inside. This usually boils down to running around one or two small maps and look for three to four clues before it's finished. And then it's time to enter the Metaverse and this is when become entirely different from before. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQr9Km-oAKbu_LkommhT46Mr-SU7LNo7uA7d5cZulhP6TTPd3j-VIMe2qFeih4GY2o3w8YQnnBcmEt3l7uhZlHQVG5WYbzutHkM2U87S_pmL57R9Lv1zN_woCowtNr75Qj1Hzqs74zBGLMZb8Y6d6xHgEuHijPTrF9QtNT2nPnFpDhyphenhyphen6OCMZLpvAEiEjI/s500/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h15m56s549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQr9Km-oAKbu_LkommhT46Mr-SU7LNo7uA7d5cZulhP6TTPd3j-VIMe2qFeih4GY2o3w8YQnnBcmEt3l7uhZlHQVG5WYbzutHkM2U87S_pmL57R9Lv1zN_woCowtNr75Qj1Hzqs74zBGLMZb8Y6d6xHgEuHijPTrF9QtNT2nPnFpDhyphenhyphen6OCMZLpvAEiEjI/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h15m56s549.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Gone are the turn based battles since this time, the game was made working with KoeiTecmo, taking in their expertise to make combat play like their Dynasty Warriors series. You will get into the thick of it with up to three other party members in an active battle against literal hoards of shadows you will mow down without mercy, bouncing on the fly between who you are controlling (via this game's version of baton passes, or activating extra advantages by this act) and really only pausing the game when you decide to use a persona's techniques to choose which moves you want from a menu. And these moves, while the same ones you used before, have been adapted for an actual arena via defining an area you will hit with them (or targets specific as works for the technique).</p><p>And of course since you no longer have negotiations of any sort, the personas you use to do this have to be collected a different way... a much more direct way. This time around, any time you kill one of the mythological creatures, there is a chance it will drop a mask. Collecting it mid-fight will mean you get that persona on the spot if you haven't already collected it. If you have, then it will be converted to points you can use to strengthen your roster when you visit the Velvet room, but more on that later. If you don't have it, but don't have an empty slot for it to be available, the persona is still yours, but it will now wait in the registry for you to claim when you gain a space for it on one of those velvet room visits as well.</p><p>And as always, that velvet room plays a strong part in the namesake of the game. You can enter if from any checkpoint in a dungeon or via etherial jailcell doors you will find in any city you visit to do a handful of essential actions. The most obvious of this is to fuse personas together to get something more powerful, and this I found a lesser experience if I am completely honest. The previous game allowed you to choose how you would do this, be it starting with looking over what you can get and what you will have to trade to do it or starting by deciding which personas you are willing to sacrifice. Being a fan of using this to cycle out my weaker personas, I was disappointed to find it was no longer an option. Rather now you can only select what you want and decide if it's worth it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiTdOxUQ2MsY3jugmNGPhBEe9uazZTA3zfR1rJOq_5RKMVA-nCQ11pbNsVdYn0b8-3so4_q6JjwYNHJ-e3_-AsgtyoC_wyW59PNlMZvN6CqnvhMGLkpJvuc6r77-agvBB81kDn0kGRLztypVX3eEu-qkJtSa-pk3DZ-pBxAwd3ZKztBEqfuUSF9npX0IM/s500/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h16m24s269.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiTdOxUQ2MsY3jugmNGPhBEe9uazZTA3zfR1rJOq_5RKMVA-nCQ11pbNsVdYn0b8-3so4_q6JjwYNHJ-e3_-AsgtyoC_wyW59PNlMZvN6CqnvhMGLkpJvuc6r77-agvBB81kDn0kGRLztypVX3eEu-qkJtSa-pk3DZ-pBxAwd3ZKztBEqfuUSF9npX0IM/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-02-25-20h16m24s269.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>In addition, you can also strengthen personas you already have. In persona 5 you could do this as well, but you had to sacrifice a persona to give it's strengths to another one. This time, you will gain points to do this by collecting personas in battle that you already have, converting them automatically for this, spending those points to level them automatically and later on, to boost specific stats of the persona.</p><p>And finally you have the register where everyone you've caught is listed with a price tag. If you ever want to get another copy of a persona you once had, pay the cash and you can have them back. However these by default are just as you collected them (or created them with fusion). If you want to keep a more current version on the list, you can always reregister them. And in addition, this is where any persona you collect that is new to you but you didn't have space for them goes... just with a big old price of 0 to take. It's a nice way to make sure your roster doesn't prevent you from collecting one you like (or need if you are looking to do a specific fusion that needs it).</p><p>However no modern Persona game is complete without using some kind of social representation to build up your abilities in the field. But this one really offers no real side stories to work with and no social links. Without any them this time around, the game had to find a new way to let you upgrade the general mechanics of battle that you could in the previous title and they chose instead to do this via a Bonds system. As you play, you will gain Bond levels, each of which will give you a set of points for you to spend on upgrades such as extra health/spell power and boosted stats of every sort. It will be up to you to pick which ones you want since the game will likely never give you enough power to max them out. Not that it's stingy with them. You will find these points given out like candy between battles in the metaverse, story-points you will have to see (cause there is nothing you can miss this time around) or even occasional small activities on the way.</p><p>But while the game does offer a little extra material, it's nothing that adds to the story. You will receive these "requests" at specific story-points in the game and it's up to you if you want to spend the time to complete them, but rather then have to find someone who needs their heart changed like the last game, this time they are basic things like "go kill X monsters" or "go find this desire left behind in the Jail you finished." Each will tell you what you get for completing it, but outside of these rewards and (most of the time) a reason to go back to old dungeons for a little extra level/bond grinding on the way, there is really little on offer here.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> While I would not call this a flawless game, I can say this is mechanically true as the game ran perfectly from start to finish.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Digital Rights Management:</b> Unfortunately, this game is not DRM free. Sega LOVES using Denuvo and this game has it. It is also worth noting you DO NOT want the deluxe edition of this game unless the upgrade is a STEEP price discount since the only ingame item worth anything offered by Sega is the extra combat music from previous Persona titles. You might expect the soundtrack to be a great thing to have too... but Atlus decided to make it an EXE rather then let you have the MP3s for your own library. That's right, even the Soundtrack has been DRMed.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Overall: </b>I could never tell you this game was bad by any means. In fact I enjoyed most of my time with it, but it also feels kinda out of place in an RPG series. It's blatantly a Dynasty Warriors clone that takes place in the Persona universe with RPG elements shoved in to make it feel more at home. As such, fans of that series are going to love this, I'll wager. I'm not one of them, and if anything my holdups felt like reasons I wouldn't enjoy that series.</p><p>But that said it is a very focused experience which (again, unlike most RPGs) will not give you any chance to explore much outside the path the story gives you (which as I think about it is quite ironic considering the themes of the series and this game in it in particular), so if you are the kind of player who gets lost in side stories and never actually finishes the game despite wanting to see it through, this is probably for you. In addition, this game is about as true to the Persona 5 experience without remaining the same game as is possible due to it's presentation, so fans who wanted to visit Joker and his friends again will also get exactly what they wanted out of it.</p><p>If there is anyone who should avoid this game, it's ironically the people who came here wanting an actual RPG experience. That is not what this is despite the series, and furnishings of it included. So if that's what you want, you will likely find what you are looking for starkly missing. </p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Score:</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">8/10<br /></div><p><br /><b>System Requirements:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Intel Core i5-2300/AMD FX-6350</li><li>6 GB RAM<br /></li><li>NVIDIA Geforce GTX 660 (2GB)/AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB)</li><li>Windows 8.1 or later<br /></li><li>25 GB hard drive space</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 5 5600G<b> </b>running at 3.9 Ghz</li><li>16 GB RAM</li><li>Windows 11</li><li><a href="https://www.pdp.com/en/shop/controller/pdp-dx-wired-controller-red" target="_blank">PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)</a></li></ul><p><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382330/Persona_5_Strikers/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-38328318682376407382024-01-18T23:36:00.003-05:002024-01-18T23:36:38.170-05:00What Remains of Edith Finch (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2024/01/what-remains-of-edith-finch-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglcmclVSGUMHTwZnml5DnXooqsNPudMYhnEeQp2xl4djE62dWVZZGrLwF5TwHvwLFh-46GWyJ83IrVm0-CVYE7aDqQcrlWL4hNneAGo4zxA1OrOt9CcL5TVmWwaFOfEF6fI3GOjck4tQPBdaejT02i-38Qo9smLh67kSovT3nmDPz4r1GRHY8q_JlEsIc/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-18-09h27m40s056.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Ever since Epic has setup a store front, they've been trying to draw business by giving away a different game every week and if it struck me as interesting I would pick it up only for it to languish in my backlogs. This would be one of those games, so when I did my first dice roll in a long while (franchises took up a lot of my gaming time recently), this came up as the result. Interested, I installed and a few hours later, the credits were rolling. I have to say, it was a nice evening.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> It's been seven years since Edith made her way to the old family home. But when her mother passed away, she inherited the place, so it was time to go revisit the past... hers and her family's. You see the Finches have always had a bit of a history: their family is known for being well off, but also being cursed with many unfortunate deaths along the family tree. To find out about these things is a morbid quest, perhaps, but one she needs answer for: as a child her mother had gone to extremes to hide such things... even going so far as to seal the bedroom doors of those who had departed... and ultimately move the remaining family (basically herself and Edith) away so as to try to escape that dark past.</p><p>So now with even her mother also gone, she is the last. It's finally time to know.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisof_7hP-qyQWHDTtpOJGPs4jKR2uow-4qx-ga6XBro3CeTybkjJYCMRWYVSLJ1rRj-zKyeVWbDSEwyiKp_twUFZUZDYSnTjLmiTFq30sgkHbvJWSN5fNFMFex1Vz3Zu_CXSSxqunpLWqBF7gcbNk2wKUKsgvsWYm2CjpQrEWQ-1XugbU8KXlJNdvZC0E/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-18-09h28m07s121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisof_7hP-qyQWHDTtpOJGPs4jKR2uow-4qx-ga6XBro3CeTybkjJYCMRWYVSLJ1rRj-zKyeVWbDSEwyiKp_twUFZUZDYSnTjLmiTFq30sgkHbvJWSN5fNFMFex1Vz3Zu_CXSSxqunpLWqBF7gcbNk2wKUKsgvsWYm2CjpQrEWQ-1XugbU8KXlJNdvZC0E/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-18-09h28m07s121.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>The tale will take place as you explore the house with Edith, either wandering around or losing yourself in the stories she uncovers. At these times, the world melts away and you enter a small vignette of a game as it's described in the text (or even device sometimes) she finds these tales in. While this does mean you literally have the text in front of you, it's blended into the events you experience, often taking a role in the environment itself. The effect is that really outside of one specific story (which in my humble opinion is the lowpoint of the game anyway), you honestly begin to look at the text as nothing more then a meter to show you are progressing and little else, even as the words are spoken and add to the what you are experiencing brilliantly.</p><p>It's actually rather ingenious in how it works both with and around the game itself, and may be one of the better examples of stylized writing I have come across... and I'm not sure I mean just in video games. But to explain what you will see beyond that is to ruin the experience so I will stop short of that.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> This is yet another game I really have to describe first and foremost as gorgeous. Right from the start the game shows you what it can do with a general gloom over the world as you walk down the old roads to reach Edith's childhood home, the house itself standing with a tower-like silhouette against the fog of early day. And this tone is going to be a common theme as you play which will be supported by everything.</p><p>Not that this forest and the abandoned home are all you will see. They just provide a backdrop, which in itself is incredibly varied, ranging from wilderness to a private library to even the pinkest brightest and frankly most garish bathroom you will ever seen in a video game (and possibly your life)... and then we can get to the meat of the game: the descriptions of the events you are collecting the news of.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQs5CfbB0K9VVGpgubL8mH_VQbNiZy_DFHpr7YvQGCn2IwTeU-ZaSdl8X7s2sOvfejH7s55psVHXbLrA60hKmw4zswm5IE_SPVerlgzfhgM5gdi_Bq4pk_UgFj3z8do330uhvmpSHUUbXrs9_zZiulkaO2CXe9He1pJ4kNA1JQajFY_-xhMAzAodwT52M/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-18-09h28m34s987.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQs5CfbB0K9VVGpgubL8mH_VQbNiZy_DFHpr7YvQGCn2IwTeU-ZaSdl8X7s2sOvfejH7s55psVHXbLrA60hKmw4zswm5IE_SPVerlgzfhgM5gdi_Bq4pk_UgFj3z8do330uhvmpSHUUbXrs9_zZiulkaO2CXe9He1pJ4kNA1JQajFY_-xhMAzAodwT52M/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-18-09h28m34s987.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>When you find the story of one of your family members, you will be transported to a rendition of their story, each complete with it's own style. These may remain in the style of the game for the most part (first person from the eyes of the one the story is about), but everything from the world, to the art to even the shading style of the engine changes to suit this new scene, and the effect is perfect to still look amazing even as it separates the story from yours brilliantly.</p><p>But that is not to say this game is perfect, as humans in this game suffer like many games of it's time: the few times you see others in the game, they look simple and kinda cartoony. They fit the world, but they just don't have the same level of detail and care the rest of the game does, and it's frankly a favor to the game how much it focuses on the world(s) it takes place in over the people within: literally focusing on it's strengths.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Much like the graphics that make up this game, the soundscape is also amazing. There is very little in the way of music, and that may well be for the best: this is a game is a very atmospheric affair about some very morbid events and discovering them, so outside a few specific moments, letting the world itself seep in completely was just a great design choice. And it also let those moments when there is music stand out exceptionally well, giving them that extra oomph to those moments they highlight even more.</p><p>But the soundscape you uncover is much more ambiance then direct sound effects, so expect that to be the dominant part of what you hear. And you can expect it to be really good as you are accompanied by a slight breeze through the forest, wood floors creaking as you walk around, or even the nearby waves as the house resides on a shoreline. It just sounds right, giving the world a bit more of that melancholy tint of loneliness then it would have in dead silence.</p><p>But what you will hear most is the voice acting... as you play, Edith will narrate a lot of what is going on, both talking about what she is finding as well as reminiscing about her time as a little girl before her family had abruptly left this place. It actually feels really natural. And even though she is alone in this house, hers is not the only voice in this game. When you find one of these stories about a family member, the voice becomes the one who wrote it, and all of these while much smaller parts, are also really well done as each voice just adds that much more to the picture painted by the scene you will witness.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> This is perhaps the weakest part of the game as really, there isn't much in the way of gameplay here. You will wander around the house and the area around it from a first person view, but there is really little to do beyond look around open passages, listen to the commentary as you do so, and ultimately, find the stories of Edith's family to dive into and experience. It's brief... in fact I finished it taking my time in about 2 and a half hours, but in that time you will find plenty to see and enjoy, provided you are in the mood to sit back and absorb instead of getting into the thick of it (action or puzzles).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcysVonjI0mDhwpjL6O6jdVxJU56pvRfM7fG_UxpKgpI9b5lUu1lyPGlOA3fJn1HcRhmuOkuq3MNZRgartf19ThL3m4F45pmwCxTmWMbgQ_UnYiUUblbl-mZ6VxRarwekXF1xVmrZmmhxGgMikSh1h4qb8PHIbf6Jm7Oo5Xw4QFXeIypP1BfuQSPgFOC4/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-18-09h29m15s522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcysVonjI0mDhwpjL6O6jdVxJU56pvRfM7fG_UxpKgpI9b5lUu1lyPGlOA3fJn1HcRhmuOkuq3MNZRgartf19ThL3m4F45pmwCxTmWMbgQ_UnYiUUblbl-mZ6VxRarwekXF1xVmrZmmhxGgMikSh1h4qb8PHIbf6Jm7Oo5Xw4QFXeIypP1BfuQSPgFOC4/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-18-09h29m15s522.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But I do have to bring up a complaint here too. Simply put this game makes a lot of use of your motions directly interacting with objects in the game, such as books or windows and doors which should be a lot more intuitive then they are. Be it requiring too much movement so you have to pick up and move the mouse, moving in a direction counter-intuitive to what the screen suggests, or other small detail, sometimes these functions do not feel as smooth as they should. Thankfully nothing is in a rush so if it takes you a moment, that's all it is, but <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2012/10/amnesia-dark-descent-pc-review.html" target="_blank">after other games I have played</a>, it was kinda jarring to hit moments like those.</p><p>5/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>This is yet another game where no bugs presented themselves. It ran absolutely perfectly for me.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Digital Rights Management:</b> We have another game that seems pretty DRM free. If you buy it on Steam it uses that, but on the Epic Store, you can apparently run it without even the Epic launcher.</p><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/What_Remains_of_Edith_Finch" target="_blank">PCgamingWiki page</a><br /></li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> Once again, we have another "game" I have a hard time calling a good game, but not because it's bad so much as it's hard to really call it a game. In fact it may be best to compare this to <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2018/08/layers-of-fear-pc-review.html" target="_blank">another title I once reviewed</a> where I called it more of a virtual haunted house then a game. But where that was a haunted house, this felt more like a museum dedicated to the Finches and their various fates, complete with interactive displays for each. Take a few hours and relax as you explore and see what it all has to show you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>8/10</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></blockquote><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Intel i3 2125 3.30 Ghz</li><li>2 GB RAM </li><li>NVidia GeForce 750/AMD Radeon 7790</li><li>5 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows Vista SP2 (64-bit)</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/what-remains-of-edith-finch" target="_blank">Epic Games</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-18823212411991611142024-01-14T20:40:00.003-05:002024-01-15T10:57:56.564-05:00Ghostwire: Tokyo - Prelude (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2024/01/ghostwire-tokyo-prelude-pc-review.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFuuzIaQIiQIuDAAdU2k59HSEUZC68POqqlS7g0DA8taFk637oE-SUZp72NzkaX40uJEVPX5GZRFfEjtRonLfDlIKsytbIH-5xxdfrRGg3EosHNdr8AjkCxcI7Nd03IYd-vJSj0ePuDnwdoy_7EhtLbti1B-nM_A18UzT8djxpbsEjG93JcfsC6np8EW4/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-14-17h06m22s424.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>When over the Christmas holiday Epic Games gave away Ghostwire: Tokyo, I decided to pick this up as well since it takes place before the main event and is a free title. I already understood it was a visual novel, but I was hoping for a lot more then I got here. I pray this doesn't reflect on the main game beyond the setting.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Ryota needs help and he needs it yesterday. His best friend has been missing for a few days now and while at first everyone was helping him look, people have given up... especially as there has been a wave of disappearances as of late. But somehow, he has gotten in his head that this and the others are more then meets the eye. As such he has scoured social media to find help, finding the works of a man only known by the initials KK who seems to get involved and solve a lot of these type of cases. Desperate, he hunts down the guy's number and makes a call.</p><p>And this is where we have to make a full stop. I did not leave a typo in the above paragraph. To quote the game itself:</p><blockquote><p><i>"Social media would never lie. And that means KK is an expert---maybe THE expert---in all things paranormal."</i></p></blockquote><p>This is the kind of logic that goes right there with finding out everything there is about an ancient and until 5 minutes ago unknown threat to all of mankind and how to stop it because "it was on the internet." 5 minutes of scrolling your facebook page is the kind of research I expect to be done for an internet political argument, not to get help for a friend who is in danger or worse. It's also incredibly unbelievable that they have a number "just out there" on social media to find them so conveniently with nothing more then their first and last initial to go on ASSUMING that is even correct. It is just pure cringe by stupidity without any thought put into it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRdTxFe8uEQkXSfBzMD5l6n22h_SRE2DPXnOkPXF-bmMINv2gW6xDmb9jIA-3-XqpG-riEsUJXo-3YvHShtdRlVd9u2ER_49571nANETceJCvlw_CLT3CPgzbLMbjg2MEmJAGiHd8TwHHBwcM-VnvmwJcwQOAol5ufER2vpbxCzWd7Exp4NGq3ekHAgww/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-14-17h06m27s153.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRdTxFe8uEQkXSfBzMD5l6n22h_SRE2DPXnOkPXF-bmMINv2gW6xDmb9jIA-3-XqpG-riEsUJXo-3YvHShtdRlVd9u2ER_49571nANETceJCvlw_CLT3CPgzbLMbjg2MEmJAGiHd8TwHHBwcM-VnvmwJcwQOAol5ufER2vpbxCzWd7Exp4NGq3ekHAgww/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-14-17h06m27s153.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>The car itself is sadly not much better handled. Besides the kid, the first characters you will meet are a young punk-girl with the side of her head shaved and a black trenchcoat wearing hard boiled detective who she works with that in his own words, "she knows the exact day he stopped being afraid of anything." This is also the man the kid was looking for, out of pure convenience. </p><p>Soon they are joined by a generic as hell looking office man who often lets recordings he made previously speak for him so he can go obsess over his research and an overly energetic teenager who wants to prove her worth in the field while oozing naivete about just what she's asking for considering what these "hard core" people are hunting down. Basically if you and some friends rolled got together to play the tabletop rollplaying game Cyberpunk, this is the kind of party the player would come up with the first time you met up.... and the only one who gets any time to develop or even let you get to know beyond the stereotype they visibly represent is Mr. hardboiled.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnWEfsNDrwnK7fuXsGMRO3DDwiptzg_eOX6z0l9Fr4kE1cgFs4vIVDX98_QmVvxf3nceyS-CT_sJ16lnFrnBGZGfbIfGOn5xohgiFa7zWrqcbCxwlk8xJ3vYDUP0ZZCZ6STyPSqxp486ZkJGbDKk-9bph0qH2Imlwo0YrLKNR-1U3csB_W3QC2En6xxH0/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-14-17h07m09s195.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnWEfsNDrwnK7fuXsGMRO3DDwiptzg_eOX6z0l9Fr4kE1cgFs4vIVDX98_QmVvxf3nceyS-CT_sJ16lnFrnBGZGfbIfGOn5xohgiFa7zWrqcbCxwlk8xJ3vYDUP0ZZCZ6STyPSqxp486ZkJGbDKk-9bph0qH2Imlwo0YrLKNR-1U3csB_W3QC2En6xxH0/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-14-17h07m09s195.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But thankfully some of that might be just how they rushed into this since there really isn't even much of story here to begin with. You will play mainly from KK's point of view (as noted above) while he talks to the kid and goes to investigate where is friend disappeared. Not a lot is going to happen here and you will basically be done in 30 minutes tops. Much like that party, it's the kind of bog-standard story I might expect a Dungeon Master running the game to introduce the party to the world the real game will take place in (minus the rest of the cast being active in it)... which seems to be the point here too. I don't really see anything outside of suggesting there is a big bad out there really going anywhere from here to the main game.</p><p>5/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> What you are about to see is effectively a video-comic, which makes sense since this is a visual novel this time around, and honestly here I can't complain. The art work is actually really good! You will only have a few background as the game doesn't have many locations, but what is here is well painted and well detailed. If it wasn't for the people painted into the background in some of these, I could see them used for actual animated work!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ81Ba6nbGYPFSzjbtuI4WEm0rdD09JHTyx1egQ9LZTcfEgDJEdnGUZuqtIVhNdj5SM0pC0xiI1YfXVwhfvj9Qw_rBYciKjU8KyXBh6j2L2vz_K6ET-VWv_4GExpleaxhsvyUcq_7GkZY79BtSHmhn3bv9Jquy4uU4dlkeOEgKm45WhX0Zrb0h7gOasto/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-14-17h06m44s197.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ81Ba6nbGYPFSzjbtuI4WEm0rdD09JHTyx1egQ9LZTcfEgDJEdnGUZuqtIVhNdj5SM0pC0xiI1YfXVwhfvj9Qw_rBYciKjU8KyXBh6j2L2vz_K6ET-VWv_4GExpleaxhsvyUcq_7GkZY79BtSHmhn3bv9Jquy4uU4dlkeOEgKm45WhX0Zrb0h7gOasto/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-14-17h06m44s197.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And the characters are not bad either! There are not many, but they all have several shots drawn and drawn very well, as if they hired a comic artist who knew what they were doing with shading, but still wanted to stylize it somewhat. It all flows together very well for a very nice looking package.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Sadly this is a point where the game runs very short. For all the good in the visual department, the audio is barebone to put it mildy. There is some voice acting, but its basically one syllable work to show an emotion at best. There is also incredibly little sound work with almost all of it being in the one battle you will have to direct. Really all you have is what I can best describe as generic music tracks which may or may not fit particularly well. </p><p>6/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> This prequel is a visual novel and will play NOTHING like the game that follows. However, like most visual novels there really isn't much actual gameplay. In fact it will all boil down to choosing a few specific conversations, casting one spell, and one incredibly simplistic turn-based battle (which you can lose for taking too long best I can tell). There is just nothing here.</p><p>But again, this is a visual novel. If there is any one type of game that isn't about the gameplay, this is it.</p><p>N/A</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>I can not say I ran into a single bug playing this game.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Digital Rights Management:</b> Outside of Steam itself, this game uses no DRM. (And if you get it on Epic, it can be told to run without any launcher at all.)</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Ghostwire:_Tokyo_-_Prelude" target="_blank">PCgamingWiki page</a><br /></li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> This "game" was just a disappointment from start to finish. Yes it's a visual novel, so I am not going to knock it for a lack of gameplay. But the writing mixes dumb and bog-standard to pretty much offer up a whole lot of nothing. I wasn't expecting a lot out of this, but I somehow walked away with even less.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KBIHuq7Qyk/UN-GGA8j6CI/AAAAAAAAATw/A1QHtY6qUtc/s144/score%25205.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KBIHuq7Qyk/UN-GGA8j6CI/AAAAAAAAATw/A1QHtY6qUtc/s144/score%25205.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>5/10</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></blockquote><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Any CPU running at 2.2 Ghz or higher</li><li>4 GB RAM </li><li>As long as it supports DirectX, your GPU should be fine</li><li>3 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 10 (64-bit)</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1817250/Ghostwire_Tokyo__Prelude/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-87299099889459384832024-01-13T19:22:00.002-05:002024-01-13T19:22:24.417-05:00The Talos Principle 2 (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-talos-principle-2-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfAStaYjMMxmEs4NOIakpVkdE2VmEDMAWzJbCwEArrbfzcA3s9Gb4l9HH20KPjoj6v-kDIsM8TbvI5rA-F5Vl2783CKMjtj7BKxOWWQydeD9vUJBaASUi9q4W_Hk2Wu3vyMJxO3velmDRETqDKRk2QhFJLPANL7mW-z6300_Gl9x_DzPrq1_7lDOkrGzA/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h00m02s690.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Way to start the new year with a bang! Ok ok, I was playing this through the end of 2023, but really how else can I put when I finished it? Now don't get me wrong, this did not come out of left field or anything. <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-talos-principle-pc-review.html" rel="nofollow">I absolutely loved the game it's a sequel to</a>, but after my time so far playing with Unreal 5 (in the form of Starship Troopers) I had concerns about performance and general game quality this time around. Thankfully I was not only proven to be worrying over nothing, the game carried by the engine is arguably my favorite game of 2023, taking even the title from the <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/07/system-shock-2023-pc-review.html" target="_blank">CyberGoddess of Citidel Station's outing</a>! Well done!</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Welcome to New Jerusalem. Everyone has been expecting you, for you are officially the 1000th citizen to walk off the assembly line and join the city. Did I mention you are not human? Well, not organically one, anyway. None of you are. This is a post human world and an apocalyptic event has removed organic humanity from the face of it. But in a final plea to continue society, a small group of scientists put a project in place to evolve artificial intelligence as their successors... and you are the last one to be built, representing the Goal for how many of you should exist, and the celebration of your birth is about to begin!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjYIUfTq_5QixGG7rSHKMRMhMZ3_Woxds0FxBUuldaDbnF8zsu11vy1IQTisTHDANLayCfvGqYNASQNTPcKD7gNi_T_d1oGETsrxqSuGYbppwAAWnJHWV_ZeERNmTq5Aau-QqtYpH7p0A7uhROdOCDXmde9NPLtwnCzSdiIWYIdxz4EgmG3Y9Ys9xO6Qc/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h00m57s945.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjYIUfTq_5QixGG7rSHKMRMhMZ3_Woxds0FxBUuldaDbnF8zsu11vy1IQTisTHDANLayCfvGqYNASQNTPcKD7gNi_T_d1oGETsrxqSuGYbppwAAWnJHWV_ZeERNmTq5Aau-QqtYpH7p0A7uhROdOCDXmde9NPLtwnCzSdiIWYIdxz4EgmG3Y9Ys9xO6Qc/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h00m57s945.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But the joyous event would not happen without it's own unplanned interruptions, for as the mayor of this city was giving his speech to coronate it all, a being of energy burst into the scene. Calling himself Prometheus, he called out to the people to dare come find "the flame" before he was chained up and disappeared again. Once gone, it became clear to the people the source was an island where a strange energy signature had already been detected. At the time, the mayor just wanted to leave it alone, fearing the extension of resources needed to investigate... but that was no longer an option. Something there had clearly shown interest in the city, and there was no ignoring it anymore. It's time to explore the island and discover it's mysteries!</p><p>This is the basic premise that will begin your adventure, but from humble beginnings, great things will come. Once again this is the kind of game where discovery makes up the tail way too much to want to give any of it away: the journey itself is just to full of wonders to find. And in addition, there are several personal stories going on which you will catch glimpses of and even influence by talking to your fellow explorers, asking their advice and even offering some of your own, making it really feel like you have a team out there (even if the puzzle work that makes up most of the game is all you... for the most part).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjkr3vVi1zJcNpNHziDX-Ysgxg8n7zJExE7q-qNd735jk5sUiJJ4Qd5wXeYO_9l0eBOswznWnPs3xLl4iGvIAMJMAOde_iijJq_9d_dqI_-QYwLlJ-PIvObn7Lmq6N2W0VCWFQL8aQ2URv9ZMd7JX5Ff1BgL7xMurojeGQcyrmrifHyZSjDFjaNL9r8A/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h01m19s921.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjkr3vVi1zJcNpNHziDX-Ysgxg8n7zJExE7q-qNd735jk5sUiJJ4Qd5wXeYO_9l0eBOswznWnPs3xLl4iGvIAMJMAOde_iijJq_9d_dqI_-QYwLlJ-PIvObn7Lmq6N2W0VCWFQL8aQ2URv9ZMd7JX5Ff1BgL7xMurojeGQcyrmrifHyZSjDFjaNL9r8A/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h01m19s921.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Not that these are your only companions either. Right from the beginning you will be granted access to a social network these new humans keep between themselves, and while you are out exploring, you will occasionally get messages through this interface from people back home, eager to talk about what you found, ideas about how things should go from here, and even just art pieces some of them made and want to show everyone. It paints a rather full picture of the world you are part of and will ultimately play a massive roll in guiding the future to. <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-talos-principle-pc-review.html" target="_blank">Just like it's predecessor</a>, there is more then one story at play here, but this time, it's more about what's going on at home instead of finding out what happened before. It all comes together brilliantly and is an absolute joy to behold. Other writers should take note... THIS is how you write an open-world style story!</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> This is quite possibly the single best looking game I have ever played. Really the best way I can do it justice would be to just run a video and say "LOOK AT IT" but that just might be cheating, so allow me to try to explain what you will see.</p><p>The Talos Principle 2 is part of the new crop of games that run on the brand-spanking-new Unreal 5 engine, and it shows. From the moment you start your game and you see the open sky, this one is simply going to floor you like few games ever will... enough so you may think that is just a nice picture over the screen... and then the game begins in an ancient Egyptian setting and you suddenly can not be so sure. This is the kind of look Croteam (who incidentally made this game too) only WISH they could have put into <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2022/10/serious-same-3-bfe-pc-review.html" target="_blank">Serious Sam 3</a>. This game right here rivals what you might see in some modern movies (but not the most recent Marvel ones... I don't want to insult Croteam like that).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMfL8WNmNl3Vpv1BaKGORkn43lDBB1_U3EzP6XsKzMgp9jZRHdS-OnrkOV57oEkKhPW2OgSZMj2qOJ5YG_F1hXNJr5ZdoqCPsGbEvHidl8UTXuO1ytjrP7bJEA54oCAn11Bb02qqckv7OqJIfmrqR4oca9dF7kp4LC6O_j1DAVynI0Dq76mZQ9MFal640/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h00m18s304.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMfL8WNmNl3Vpv1BaKGORkn43lDBB1_U3EzP6XsKzMgp9jZRHdS-OnrkOV57oEkKhPW2OgSZMj2qOJ5YG_F1hXNJr5ZdoqCPsGbEvHidl8UTXuO1ytjrP7bJEA54oCAn11Bb02qqckv7OqJIfmrqR4oca9dF7kp4LC6O_j1DAVynI0Dq76mZQ9MFal640/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h00m18s304.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And then you find out this is just the opening act before the real game begins and you wake up in your new body born in the real world, jumping from a world of ruins to a utopian sci-fi city, if one that under the surface shows it's a bit more worn then the citizens there would like to admit, and just about all the care and detail the game showed in the smaller space is here too. But I will have to say just about due to the distances this world has and the initial simulation just did not.</p><p>You see, the Unreal 5 engine specializes in changing both the lighting and complexity of models on the fly based on how far they are from the camera, and this game didn't quite blend that right. As a result, (at least on medium settings which is what I played on) sometimes the things you see way out there change to look a lot worse before you get close enough to even worry about them. It's a sacrifice that you will notice from time to time just due to how open this game is, but the rarity of it just makes those moments stand out all the more.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnhWIauQQ4Smhp7ef6aH2jTVOjD04xxzm6xKncA3tUAdwNwdOg_qI6X1WT4RpwAb6AqF1SnDWXko1TfDqu1awlxeuUNJBtwiwpibs7JkiY8kVjlmukxtcJ0TyknF-Cw6dLPFX_PkWqUHHqXojM-QYNnrLFjP4PcFEPAYkTxkjiNFwmmDBLUEe1a-FwAw/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h00m49s895.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnhWIauQQ4Smhp7ef6aH2jTVOjD04xxzm6xKncA3tUAdwNwdOg_qI6X1WT4RpwAb6AqF1SnDWXko1TfDqu1awlxeuUNJBtwiwpibs7JkiY8kVjlmukxtcJ0TyknF-Cw6dLPFX_PkWqUHHqXojM-QYNnrLFjP4PcFEPAYkTxkjiNFwmmDBLUEe1a-FwAw/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h00m49s895.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Nor will you be in this world alone, and the game makes that obvious from the moment you wake up greeted by a nice lady who's whole job is to welcome new citizens into the world and explain what is going on. She looks, well like everybody else in the game more or less. You are all robots with no real need for distinct forms beyond technological upgrades as time marched on, leaving most to be distinguished by the colors of their armor plating, the glow in their eyes, and their voices. But the detail is absolutely brilliant, and you can expect to see this level of quality from start to finish and across some absolutely stunning backdrops you will NOT forget anytime soon.</p><p>And all of this with absolutely no frame drops and as I said at the beginning, this is a drop-dead-gorgeous game that is quite possibly the best looking thing I have seen to date!</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> There are not going to be a lot of sound effects in this game. There are no enemies in this game, so the sounds you will be hearing are for the most part your metal footsteps (or splashing as you stomp or wade through water), the sounds of the various tools you will get to use during puzzles, and the sounds of nature around you. These all sound very good and fairly real to the world, but this is something I can say about just about any other modern game out there. Sound effects are at this point one of those things that is just so good, it's rare for anything to really stand out if it's for the right reasons.</p><p>The music will also rarely stand out for that matter, but not because it's another orchestra bellowing epic tunes. Rather, this game decided to go for a more subdued and quasi-technical, often reflecting the wonder of someone new to the world as they explore both New Jerusalem, the ruins that contain the puzzles that make up most of the game, or even inside the core structure that you will spend the majority of your time studying or trying to enter to study. It is an understated piece that compliments your journey perfectly, from curious to almost religious triumph. It sounds great but it never overstates what is going on, making for a rather perfect setup to play to.</p><p>But once again, like so many other games we see these days, its' the voice acting that will win the awards here. 1K (your character) is a silent protagonist, and as much as you will pick things for them to say in conversations (or on social media) with others, their voice will never be heard so much as assumed those exact words came out of them. Everyone else, however, will have a lot to say, and in fact the story side of this game is carried heavily by this work. Everyone's personality (and they are all unique) just oozes out of this game splendidly and run the absolute gammut. Perhaps the two characters that best emphasize the range are companions who will be with you for most of your journey, Byron and Alcatraz. While the best of friends, one is ever the optimist who is excited at what new discovery might just be around the corner while the other is cautious and pessimistic, worried about what new threat to the city all these sudden developments could represent. The duo just bounce off each other (and you, and really everyone else) brilliantly and are just a reflection of the work this entire cast brought to the table. Absolutely brilliant!</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> You will play The Talos Principle 2 from either a 1st or 3rd person view, depending entirely on your taste (literally there is a key just for toggling this) as you run around the locations surrounding the megastructure. These will be divided into sections you will gain access to as you play through the game via a personalized subway system, and each one is layed out to be a semi-expansive area for you to explore and discover just what it has in store for you. Feel free to run around exploring to your heart's content.</p><p>Once you've had your fill of the layout, then it will be time to get to work completing the puzzles available to you. Each of these sections will contain 10 and require you to complete 8 before you can finish the area. These puzzles will all be physics based, offering you a layout to navigate using the tools allotted to reach an alter-like table, the activation of which will unleash a set of particle/energy to fly into a gateway guarding the entrance to a central structure. This structure will be DRAMATICALLY different in style from section to section, ranging from towers to statues to what looks to me like a giant sea-mine and beyond. But each one contains basically the same thing: a laser beam that makes 1/3rd of the lock to their given side of the megastructure in the center of the island you find yourself on. Finish the three sections of that side and you are in!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1pKX66aKKVXpvWGTKi5aTBzt7BJxSIcRF1BG3gMLFqOWjKPM_VbY5CykxR1ZiCvczxkqoUsR4sw_br6Apo2TG2-PkAH86n2pBBuMbzo5aJI_AoNYOHBOX8ISpcE1Lmh14UdXWyfvSlYkhEdtQRAFk4J9faICAz6DkJ507KlKz9iiow2tCjRSWZ24cI8/s500/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h03m44s061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1pKX66aKKVXpvWGTKi5aTBzt7BJxSIcRF1BG3gMLFqOWjKPM_VbY5CykxR1ZiCvczxkqoUsR4sw_br6Apo2TG2-PkAH86n2pBBuMbzo5aJI_AoNYOHBOX8ISpcE1Lmh14UdXWyfvSlYkhEdtQRAFk4J9faICAz6DkJ507KlKz9iiow2tCjRSWZ24cI8/s16000/vlcsnap-2024-01-12-12h03m44s061.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Not that that is going to be an easy feat. These puzzles range from easy to devilish and in such a way that you may well find different ones more difficult then others, just depending on how your mind wraps around them. Sometimes you will find yourself blasting through them rapid fire and feeling like a damn genius in the process, while others will leave you scratching your head and wondering just what you had missed for a good long while before it finally hits you... if it does hit you. Hell, there are achievements in this game for both coming back to a puzzle or spending over 20 minutes on a single one (I should know, I got both) as well as bonus ones for pulling off particularly hard feats on some as well (which I also got a few). It's overall one hell of an experience.</p><p>Although if you can't get all the puzzles, the game is forgiving to an extent as well. While there are bonus puzzles and end story pieces for completing everything available to you, you can select any 8 out of the 10 you wish to do to power up that gate, and if you need even more help, there are items you can find in the world called Prometheus' flames. If you find one you can use it to bypass any puzzle you desire outside of the megastructure itself. These can be hard to come by, however, so be frugal with them. (I found 5 in my playthrough and managed to collect 4. I know there are more about though.</p><p>Once you finish these, the gate itself will prove a puzzle all it's own, and like the original game it will involve tetrominos (or Tetris-pieces if you prefer), but not quite in the same way. In the original game, you would earn these pieces to undo a gate lock by filling in the square on it with those pieces. This time, you are building a bridge out of them to reach the tower you simply could not before, pushing the story along it's major beats and completing one hell of a story for the whole thing.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>I am happy to report that there were absolutely no bugs I could see while playing this game. Everything just worked great from start to finish.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Digital Rights Management:</b> This is a new section I am adding to PC game reviews from here on out. In essence you can thank Capcom and their current debacle about trying to sneak a new DRM engine into their old games in their ongoing battle with modders for showing just how necessary it is to report this. So, at the time of writing, I will report what the current DRM situation is so you can review for yourself if it's worth it. And in case it changes, I will link to a site that tracks these things, PCGamingWiki. In this case, I am happy to report that Croteam did not include any extra DRM software in their game. All it needs is the launcher you bought the game on to run, which means it DOES effectively work without calling home to any server out there as a single player game should.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Talos_Principle_2" target="_blank">PCGaming Wiki entry for The Talos Principle 2</a><br /></li></ul><p></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> If I were the type to really care about the VGAs and other video game awards, I would probably be annoyed at how robbed this game was this year to not even be nominated for GOTY. As it stands, I do believe it was robbed, I just don't see enough value in those awards to care: just a foolishness to have snubbed such a gem of a game. This game right here is the single best experience I have had gaming in all of 2023 and is a strong contender for one of the best ever. If it wasn't for the fact that puzzle games are not a gametype everyone would like, I would be giving this game a 10 out of 10 without a second thought, it's that good. But seeing how some people just will not enjoy it for the nature of what it is, that is not possible by my own rules. But know this, miss out at your own loss. This is something special like we almost never see.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ex2VIyj1azA/UN-GGooZXDI/AAAAAAAAAT8/sDRkfaa1aew/s144/score%25209.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ex2VIyj1azA/UN-GGooZXDI/AAAAAAAAAT8/sDRkfaa1aew/s144/score%25209.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>9/10</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></blockquote><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Quad Core running at 2.5 Ghz (Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i3/i5)</li><li>8 GB RAM </li><li>AMD Radeon RX 470 or GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB VRAM)</li><li>75 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 10 (64-bit and version 2004 or newer)</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/835960/The_Talos_Principle_2/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-44345060453110054872024-01-04T19:32:00.002-05:002024-01-04T19:32:25.856-05:00New Year, new drive! Welcome to Extra Life 2024!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDH_IxnbJBh1vY_cpvxZCRJJkHg2IFvGs3l9tjb7apeljbqwDYoRB-EW0RHhS3dFbnRf2DD-1gV3J8Nbv600fDI-SEnnhfoOGuK883k3GO4nENHZOmGEnFAaSdMXia0Zdl0iddBsFa_5L7zqSeIs6VbKjF-X23TPbyGGUn5smVFdI20o4zutbfpIomms/s400/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDH_IxnbJBh1vY_cpvxZCRJJkHg2IFvGs3l9tjb7apeljbqwDYoRB-EW0RHhS3dFbnRf2DD-1gV3J8Nbv600fDI-SEnnhfoOGuK883k3GO4nENHZOmGEnFAaSdMXia0Zdl0iddBsFa_5L7zqSeIs6VbKjF-X23TPbyGGUn5smVFdI20o4zutbfpIomms/s16000/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" /></a></div><br /><p>Hail and welcome everyone! Not a lot to say that isn't said on the title, but with this post, we are starting the yearly tradition around here: playing games to help sick kids! And we do this by taking part in Extra Life.</p><p>Every year, gamers come together to raise money with the Children's Miracle Network with the pledge to play games for a 24 hour session in honor of those kids we are helping. We each play for our chosen hospital, having a great time taking our chosen hobby to do some good in the world.</p><p>And how it works is really simple. If you want to play with us, just <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" target="_blank">make your way to the Extra Life website</a>, sign up, pick the hospital you wish to play for, and get to it! If you would like to help us help the kids, it's also simple (and either way, thank you for getting involved. These kids need all the help we can give them). <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSector" target="_blank">Come on over to our team page</a> and you will see a nice big blue "Donate" button. Clicking this will bring you to our roster where you can pick who to donate under. You can even click on any of our names to see our individual pages and what hospital we are playing for... complete with a similar donate button on any of our pages. But if you wish to pick right there, the donate next to each name will bring you there with the donation section already open.</p><p>All of this is handled by the Children's miracle network, and the page itself has a lot more detail about what the whole thing is about.</p><p>But on that note, I think it's time I close this opening entry... and time we all get to what we do best... and do something straight up awesome while doing it. Have fun and game on!</p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-52024879003645737902023-12-22T23:04:00.004-05:002023-12-22T23:04:43.799-05:00The Blackwell Epiphany (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-blackwell-epiphany-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="124" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkPi3WJ1IJFtEmOljBzot44ivH9f7XhqbQXRGtAXityEu-uX5ai1ckAdzstAGZ5jK7iYMIrSWb0tgAU8uzTNnaSUWRHfHS_ut-hwEmdbscToVWFS3_KeHhaavjaeoRWOamBV5KCcRD1h4IRitfORwt72hnu_cUGZUzI6Ly1T2v9ixUjoEnzVnaqmTET0w/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h52m06s273.jpg" /></a></div><p>And here we are at the end of the line with our dynamic ghost-saving heroes' final adventure. I will admit I've been looking forward to seeing how it all turned out, and really I was not disappointed. Come on in and lets talk.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Rosa Blackwell is getting good at her jobs... on the surface, she's an "unofficial detective" that the cops use when they have a major crime and absolutely no trails to follow up. In these desperate times, they send her in since she seems to "have ways" to learn things they could not possibly know. Being a mysterious woman apparently pays fairly well.</p><p>But Rosa also has another job... one without a paycheck, but she's one of an elite few who can do it. She is a medium (or a bestower as others know her) and as such she can see and talk to ghosts. In fact, part of the deal is that she is haunted by one named Joe Mallone and together they help the dead who are still in this world move on. And they are getting good at their job, often doing both at once. But tonight, things are about to get grisly.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_76nCCa2sQF8ONX2Binb4l3eDUJ65DsG3ZO-Wl0wpxx1NRhq4FlC7M-u4heW3zXrGegMQtFL1tidsKk9_4o4dwpGO8aauqyud_V03Mz8QujEdytaT24pN5hflV9nSnIPy0JOeKP16LqvBuHKexTmsEIVFkiUCys7aR-v3FB8shSss7vlKeZCqXB1K3fE/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h54m19s244.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_76nCCa2sQF8ONX2Binb4l3eDUJ65DsG3ZO-Wl0wpxx1NRhq4FlC7M-u4heW3zXrGegMQtFL1tidsKk9_4o4dwpGO8aauqyud_V03Mz8QujEdytaT24pN5hflV9nSnIPy0JOeKP16LqvBuHKexTmsEIVFkiUCys7aR-v3FB8shSss7vlKeZCqXB1K3fE/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h54m19s244.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>On this fated night, the cops sent Rosa to an abandoned and dilapidated building that was basically falling apart at the seems with no real clue as to what they are looking for... a fairly routine job for the duo. But what followed was anything but. Leaving the building, Rosa found herself witness to a murder, and when the ghost crawled out of his body, it roared in pain before being ripped apart right before the her very eyes! (Joey was not thrilled to see ghost-destruction, either.) It didn't help that before he died a second time, the man said he was looking for her and that "not even Grace was safe." A scary night that will begin one final adventure for our duo as they seek to find out who this man is, who Grace is, and how they can prevent this final fate from falling on anyone else.</p><p>Of course I am going to recommend if you have not played <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-blackwell-legacy-pc-review.html" target="_blank">the</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/03/blackwell-unbound-pc-review.html" target="_blank">previous</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/07/blackwell-convergence-pc-review.html" target="_blank">4</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-blackwell-deception-pc-review.html" target="_blank">games</a> in the franchise, you probably should do that first. After all, this is the last chapter of the story and while it does stand on it's own well enough, you will miss a lot of the subtext established around these characters over the other titles. And this game really is a damn near perfect finish to the larger story at play here, explaining things left empty by the previous titles. Seriously even if this game didn't have details that just make more sense if you have the history of the series behind you, it would itself be a serious spoiler for the rest of the series if you play it before them, so do yourself a favor and come here after you finish the other titles.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnmOX8ouMbAdgS7guUuZjEdMN3uuvVMPXSZhG-JJa_qqwyFeqo6YfIo4_Q5rgUfVKD3yO0j71bt3Cu67Ckq2oSqUU-jP44MJ59rrgSZeZQw99rfTlOvPlJMYQtVU-yMDmk4AqvxkGE4mVrldtkB_9N5ghZAT7_EzFCVaQxr9cdUahsX0ZNwZ22MwAD_c/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h52m22s131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnmOX8ouMbAdgS7guUuZjEdMN3uuvVMPXSZhG-JJa_qqwyFeqo6YfIo4_Q5rgUfVKD3yO0j71bt3Cu67Ckq2oSqUU-jP44MJ59rrgSZeZQw99rfTlOvPlJMYQtVU-yMDmk4AqvxkGE4mVrldtkB_9N5ghZAT7_EzFCVaQxr9cdUahsX0ZNwZ22MwAD_c/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h52m22s131.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Still the payoff for all that time is more then worth it as the writing here is absolutely rock solid and finishing the tail spun between all the games absolutely brilliantly. There is no real way for the story to continue after the credits roll, but it's such a perfect ending you won't care. THIS is how you wrap things up right!</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Like the rest of the franchise, Blackwell Epiphany is a point and click adventure drawn in a low-resolution style like you might expect from the days of playing on an MS-DOS computer. As such, if you (like me) grew up with these games, the look of the world will appeal to nostalgia as much as anything. To be more real about it, most of the time, you will be in a world produced to look like a modern city while the snow falls around Rosa and Joey and these artists are very good at it, at least for the areas that allow it. There are several locations inside buildings as well, but it all looks pretty damn good, almost always keeping the illusion of the old days up perfectly. I will say almost because they somehow missed the runner on her treadmill when looking at the gym you will visit from the outside. But aside from that, it is a complete and damn nice looking package.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhluOxbVKEoUyKP8S7rzht7T4P20ytR-lHz_rI373R_2cWWdTLNumnHn68YJlr9wicnW6ovf1H262l9wEv2htnvrCqyGBCmM6tYYPR8hwG8ltiQ88GpriJBBRylxThyP9DwQB_VPAMWJRsSfs3KXQPXbSL8z3JUINb88z0zr7JGpxIHAwW2UlH1XLAqNJQ/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h52m15s776.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhluOxbVKEoUyKP8S7rzht7T4P20ytR-lHz_rI373R_2cWWdTLNumnHn68YJlr9wicnW6ovf1H262l9wEv2htnvrCqyGBCmM6tYYPR8hwG8ltiQ88GpriJBBRylxThyP9DwQB_VPAMWJRsSfs3KXQPXbSL8z3JUINb88z0zr7JGpxIHAwW2UlH1XLAqNJQ/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h52m15s776.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But that runner is a sprite and not a scene the adventure will take place in and really outside that resolution issue, she looks pretty good and fits in with the rest of the game well. In fact I can say that about just about all the characters you will see befoer the game is up. True, the game is not intensely populated, but those who are here all fit the mood and are, at least for the resolution the game is designed to work with, well detailed and colored. Hell, if there is anywhere that will betray the nostalgia, this will be it as they are also pretty much all fluidly animated. You wont be picking frames out from walk animations as easily as you might have in the hayday of this game time. But these are not the elements that will hold your memory. </p><p>Rather it will be the airbrushed profiles whenever someone talks. Most of the time, this will be Rosa and Joey, but nobody getting this level of attention looks bad to put it mildly... true, it's not photorealistic or anything, but every character feels like the artist took their time to design it like they could be pictures for the cover of a comic book (and I mean when they were good, not the past few years).</p><p>In short, the game looks really good, if intentionally dated. If old-school style is your thing you will find a lot to love here. And even if it's not, you will still find a lot to like.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Don't expect a lot out of the sound effects in this game. In fact outside of the footsteps of your character in some scenes and an occasional prop clanking around, there is little to no actual sound effects in the game. These sound good enough, but they are sparse by the nature of what you are playing.</p><p>Voices, on the other hand, are very common. In fact there isn't a single bit of dialog that isn't voiced and voiced well. Everyone plays their roll beautifully as one might expect with many of the actors and actresses having played these rolls for a few years over the series' developement. But as always in this series you seem to spend the most time listening to Rosa and Joey as they investigate the goings on and try to solve the mystery of what his happening to these spirits and how to protect them. And once again just let me take some time to draw attention to Joey as he will be the highlight of this game again. He is constantly bringing a wise-ass 1920s attitude brilliantly to the front and makes for a character you just love to hear. And yet for once, the ghost that's seen it all is shaken by what he just saw... and even reflective as the story progresses. We not only discover far more about him this time around, but he developes around those discoveries, making him far more fleshed out then he's ever been. I usually appreciate the actor's work above the rest because, well, he got to play the most fun character in the series and it shows. But this time, there is just more to it, and he played every aspect brilliantly.</p><p>Towards the middle of this mix, however, is the music. Its moody and fits the roll well enough, but it just doesn't stand out from the crowd. You will barely remember most of the music to this game shortly after you shut it off.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> Like the rest of the series, Blackwell Epiphany is a point and click adventure game. As such, you will interact with it primarily in two ways: If you want to look at something, right-click on it and if you want to interact with it, you give it a more normal click. Anything you can do these actions with will highlight a name when your mouse is over them, eliminating a lot of the "pixel hunting" this genre is known to have an issue with. And in the meantime clicking anywhere you don't see one appear will have your current character try to go there. As a side bonus if you do not have both characters on the screen and it's possible for them both to be there, you will also see a "call" button in the lower right side of the screen you can click to change this, bringing the missing member of your duo into view.</p><p>To go with these basic controls is a drop down menu that will scroll into view whenever you move the mouse to the top of the screen containing a few things you will also need to use to complete your mission. The first of which you will notice is a bar across the interface that will carry the inventory of who you are using right now and working with it is the exact same controls as the rest of the screen. You will also have a a J and an R below that to let you swap who you are controlling at will, which will be important.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPk9ALdbdyb6nZGGrVg-tmw1FSdNBHlsl1qP9_HwdfYDlSxkqkMo2YUeRcciOqvbJ_vbl4MVnNgf9-3VyWy75OjWnHNtnbvUZeFlkoJoWux-ljvdWwTuEoGh5mrDEtPtvGNckwDjGnVXT4dmrZ5QDLlYWLOpX8mElKpsPyFoWMZFlmgRDkii8AqmsUeuc/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h53m15s291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPk9ALdbdyb6nZGGrVg-tmw1FSdNBHlsl1qP9_HwdfYDlSxkqkMo2YUeRcciOqvbJ_vbl4MVnNgf9-3VyWy75OjWnHNtnbvUZeFlkoJoWux-ljvdWwTuEoGh5mrDEtPtvGNckwDjGnVXT4dmrZ5QDLlYWLOpX8mElKpsPyFoWMZFlmgRDkii8AqmsUeuc/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-21-20h53m15s291.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>When you are playing as Rosa, you will be able to interact with everything and everyone as you might expect, but Joey is much less corporeal. On the plus side, this means that provided he doesn't go too far away from Rosa, he is not restrained from going anywhere and looking at anything. However, on the downside he can't do much with what he finds or to interact with anyone who isn't also a ghost. At best, he can blow on things and give people the chills or push lighter objects around doing this. It will be up to you to combine Rosa's and Joey's skills to discover what needs to be done and how to do it. Most of these things will involve learning about other characters and the events around them as well as exploiting what you learn to get deeper into the mystery before you, but even this won't be enough.</p><p>Which is why when in this menu as Rosa you will be glad to have access to her phone. Like most people in this day and age, she has a smart phone which you can use to access the web and look up details you find out about, download data from local sources, answer emails, or even go through notes you will pick up as you play, combining them to come up with new revelations to use to your advantage. This is actually a fairly large part of the game, and while it is a cool addon, it is also the one real weakness the game has. The notes have been part of the formula since game one and an amazing way to let the game's puzzles stand out. But free text lookups expecting you to know what to look up on "the net" is a lot more annoying, since it almost seems like a throwback to the days when you had to type commands into Kings Quest... only worse since it's only for certain things and you don't always get a good idea of when that is rather then an (admittedly primitive) consistent interface. Expect this to be the main reason you get held up and maybe will want a guide to push you in the right direction once in a while.</p><p>Overall it plays VERY well, despite that weakness though, so don't let those moments prevent you from seeing this final chapter through.</p><p>7/10 </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>It took them the entire franchise, but the Devs finally did it! Not only did the game itself run flawlessly, but for once when the credits finish rolling, the game returned to the title screen instead of dropping to the desktop! Not even that bug remains!</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> This is honestly a damn good game. Maybe not an alltime great, but a pretty solid one in it's own right. However, the real strength here is just how good the writing is and how much of a great final tone for the whole 5 game long epic this really is. If you've been with Rosa and Joey this far, you owe it to yourself to finish it.</p><p>However, between the game really needing a little help to figure out what the devs were thinking form time to time and really doing yourself a disservice should you like the game and want to play the earlier ones, I would also say this is probably the only time you SHOULD play this one. It's not because it's bad. It's far from, but it really is that much of a spoiler to the earlier games. Rather this is a grand finale and should be treated as such.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>1.8 Ghz CPU</li><li>512 MB RAM </li><li>anything that can run DirectX 9.0c</li><li>1 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 7</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_blackwell_epiphany" target="_blank">gog.com</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-15843740833574936392023-12-20T20:53:00.004-05:002023-12-20T20:53:47.155-05:00Ys VIII - Lacrimosa of DANA (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/12/ys-viii-lacrimosa-of-dana-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBR8pxBn6paMNdo8IEaIdVjBPSwFTE_Ryr71_BLztW8AjKPdI63hXEUk8BLn2psFO98LzQskVKtkYsjb6nWCVxzndhl4O-61JenEN_Lur1FjbYv3JKQJ6xQLyYK4T-ryVYtA7jqiBid3kUPQ_mW5bQd1_7nXUDn8FLJW8qJ4F3jJFwLvJUJdvuOt1qQ68/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-18-08h44m47s855.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Once again we we have here another adventure with gaming's leading adventurer, Adol. (Seriously, how many characters actually claim their job title is Adventurer?) And each time we have spent time with him, I have to say I have enjoyed the hell out of it. Was this time any different? Not really... I had a blast here too. Come on in and have a peak.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Adol Christin is at again. With an adventurer's determination to see it all, he has boarded Lombardia and set sail. However if you know anything about this man's history, you are also aware of his luck when sailing in the deep blue seas. It isn't long before a monstrosity the likes of which is rarely seen attacks the ship, sinking it and stranding him on the Isle of Seiren. This island is known by sailors the world over as a cursed land and few, if any, ships are willing to get close enough to pick him up since anything that does get close enough gets absolutely destroyed. In fact (and unfortunately for our hero), the reason the Lombardia was destroyed is that cause strayed a bit further out then normal on this fated day.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-2TYl3Yj0w6G2b0VZ0RHuo3j81jNlLSc0n2GSk5xvwkNhAD3w_0u4g5q2aJm6yaeZXzpG-stHisalCQ7TRoNvujGR6170LGeFJ2RKnrChhdXjUVWQVEDVCloxRtNPRhf9tKS2yCF79_PmM7puSszYorzcgSbOI3NBiZyp4AJSwT16puidGwUNWERM-s/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-18-08h45m26s326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-2TYl3Yj0w6G2b0VZ0RHuo3j81jNlLSc0n2GSk5xvwkNhAD3w_0u4g5q2aJm6yaeZXzpG-stHisalCQ7TRoNvujGR6170LGeFJ2RKnrChhdXjUVWQVEDVCloxRtNPRhf9tKS2yCF79_PmM7puSszYorzcgSbOI3NBiZyp4AJSwT16puidGwUNWERM-s/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-18-08h45m26s326.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But Adol is not alone. It doesn't take him long before he found another survivor: a woman who knows her way with a sword and immediately decided it's his fault he found her in less then descent attire. Together, these two will have to find a way to survive long enough to find the others who managed to get ashore and perhaps a way off the island itself.</p><p>But there is also something else on Adol's mind. Since being marooned here, he's been having strange dreams about another land with another kingdom where he can see into the life of their new religious leader: the maiden of the Great Tree, Dana. If I were to tell you these are not just dreams, I would be giving nothing away, but this unusual meeting of the minds will be key in uncovering a much darker secret buried on this island... something fateed to happen that no one here could fathom or allow to pass.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMuJlw1mR4lN7p44ypif4d1q32TDaBPUVNfcPj9auOfIEtpNCw0KF_bs1vNkfJW6gDxyAoDKGizh3t3Yvh9tApxIAcpowTyusR-jUrLpWhPa9aDx1V9rgogJO7AVnuKlzR5NtRoTZnDfT8_OC_ekj6xUK1RA7FhwentyFdT0lcsi63SeDYZ83J_KdyKd4/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-19-20h03m21s587.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMuJlw1mR4lN7p44ypif4d1q32TDaBPUVNfcPj9auOfIEtpNCw0KF_bs1vNkfJW6gDxyAoDKGizh3t3Yvh9tApxIAcpowTyusR-jUrLpWhPa9aDx1V9rgogJO7AVnuKlzR5NtRoTZnDfT8_OC_ekj6xUK1RA7FhwentyFdT0lcsi63SeDYZ83J_KdyKd4/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-19-20h03m21s587.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>The story itself is made up of two blended together: Dana's and the castaways collectively, at first using the dream framework to divide the sections up and keep the flow together even as the tales have yet to converge. The result is actually really solid, up until the halfway point when everyone finally gets to come together. The skill telling the story remains the same, don't get me wrong. It just ceases to really feel like two stories so much as it explains why they made this choice and then continues from that point. If anything, the plot actually gets better... at least until the end. Unfortunately I can not say it stands up to the rest of the title, and to explain, I need to be allowed to give a spoiler. As such, skip the indented and italicized part below if you wish to avoid a huge one.</p><blockquote><p><i>You have done it! With the elemental force of evolution itself destroyed, the Lacrimosa (a literal force of nature to wipe out the dominant species and make room for the next) has been stopped. But this proved a lot more catastrophic then you expected: destroying the law of nature itself destroyed the world!</i></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><i>And then Adol wakes up in his hammock. The castaways are getting ready to leave and would really like his help to do so. It seems however, something is amiss. Dana isn't here. In fact no one even remembers her being there... ever. And on top of that it seems like there everything since destroying the beast who was guarding the waters and preventing your escape never happened. From here, how much side content you found and completed will decide how much of the ending you see, but the gist of the what happened is without the force of evolution, the goddess who was dreaming it all Maia, woke up, ending everything. If she had no desire to return to dreaming, that would have been that. However, Dana's actions during this event supposedly woke her and in the process, erased the poor girl from this new reality entirely.</i></p></blockquote><p>Now I have two major issues with the above ending. The first of which is Dana's fate. I understand she's gone, but why she's gone is convoluted at best. The goddess explains she stopped the Lacrimosa from happening by waking her up, but at the same time, the very cutscene after you finish off that boss has her doing "something" well after it was stopped and the world was beginning to be erased. This might be smoother or less clear based on the translation your copy of the game used (and trying to make sure I had the details right before making this complaint, I did find there were at least two VERY distinct English versions), but we are being told something in that last scene that completely contradicts what we just saw: Dana could NOT have stopped the Lacrimosa by that last act of defiance when it was stopped by your party literally killing evolution before her action. Yes, she clearly helped, but the contradiction is confusing at best, and straight up bad writing at worst.</p><p>And for that matter, let's talk about "reconstructing the world." This really feels to me like the writers painted themselves into a corner and needed a way out. The world was being destroyed, but conveniently just gets replaced with a new one exactly the same? With the exact same history minus one girl? I have seen endings like this before and generally they have always felt weak for the lack of impact an apocalypse of this nature should have. This is no exception.</p><p>Overall, the game's story actually seems pretty good to me, but that ending just seemed jumbled at best, and desperate to not end poorly for our heroes and their world at worst, leaving a bad taste at the last moment.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Ys games overtime have not so much taken different styles of look as evolved as technology has allowed. In the old days 2D sprites roamed a flat world with anime-style artwork for character profiles. Later when hardware advanced enough, those sprites would populate 3D landscapes, and later themselves be replaced by 3D models.</p><p>At this point we have effectively done away with the profiles almost entirely as the models are now advanced enough to carry that look and all the expressiveness to come with it on the models themselves, and it looks great doing so. You can expect the camera to move freely around as needed so all cutscenes not using an actually fully drawn animated scene (while they are in the game, they are rare) are in-engine and not just characters standing in screen without any expression at all as previous games might have done. It makes for a much more cinematic feel then ever before.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUQV3Z-WGlpUeWqm2_QYidVtfIBWcOJ6yXN59nvCD8jnvhVknxpuvcWuFlgFEfvthge_gei28tUOOv4eL4reW7iedJ53wYkTt46wMehyphenhyphennm4l08Lky79aVf7NEyl7criJxJj8YxePeRZsC1RBs3UxrCItJ2WMAWHZgFZM6KlNs95f4n9fIudlPMDHmUPfY/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-18-08h38m43s129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUQV3Z-WGlpUeWqm2_QYidVtfIBWcOJ6yXN59nvCD8jnvhVknxpuvcWuFlgFEfvthge_gei28tUOOv4eL4reW7iedJ53wYkTt46wMehyphenhyphennm4l08Lky79aVf7NEyl7criJxJj8YxePeRZsC1RBs3UxrCItJ2WMAWHZgFZM6KlNs95f4n9fIudlPMDHmUPfY/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-18-08h38m43s129.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But a game is more then it's cutscenes, and the same graphical work serves the core game very well as well. While actually playing you will see everything from a camera focused on your character you can move circle around at will and independently to your movement, letting you get a solid look at everything in the world. And that world is bright, colorful, and varied. Everything from open coastlines to forests to even haunted relics of a past forgotten by the outside world, you will never run out of things to see until the very end of the game, and it will all look vibrant as hell.</p><p>And while I've already touched on the people, rest assured the variety you see in the land applies here too. Everyone is distinct and full of life and character. You will likely have a favorite or two before this game is over in and outside of your playable ones.</p><p>Nor are the monsters slouches either! Ranging from lowly slugs to giant dinosaurs and far more outlandish beasts in between, you will have a lot of creatures to fight as you play giving the active life as much (if not more) variety then even the environments.</p><p>If I had to sum it up, this is one beautiful game that was smart enough to keep a style that simply doesn't age with the tech it's built around!</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Much like the visuals, I have to give a lot of credit to the soundscape this time around, even the sound effects. Most of the game takes place on the Isle of Seiren, and the environment itself carries this in sound as well as sight. True, the sounds you will listen for are things like Adol's sword slashing, roars of angry monsters, or the sounds of getting hit (you or your enemy) and these sound about as good as one can expect. But the world itself doesn't hesitate to fill your ears as well. Waves crash on the shores while seagulls cry out while on the beaches. But at the same time, waterfalls splash as you approach and caves echo properly, creating the audio half of the atmosphere perfectly.</p><p>Well, maybe almost perfectly for no Ys game is complete without an absolutely amazing soundtrack, and this one is no exception. Yes, you will get more dulcet tones for when you are exploring a particular moment or a more comedic time is at play, but these will not be the songs that stick with you. Ys is known for it's almost 80's style metal, particularly while in combat, and here that tradition continues with the absolute mastery. When that guitar flairs up, you KNOW shit is about to go down in the best way remotely possible.</p><p>Nor will you have to listen to only sounds and music. As one would expect for most modern games, there is a fair amount of speech that went into this game, too. True, not every moment is voice acted, but key scenes usually are, and done so fairly well. It's a bit campy to call the best I've ever heard, but you get a strong sense of everyone from their work, which only enhances your connection to them (love or hate, and you will definately find both in this).</p><p>7/10</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> As one would expect from a more modern game in the franchise, Ys VIII is an action RPG played from a 3rd person perspective. You will run around the island fighting your way through bigger and badder monsters, gaining better gear and experience and in the process leveling up your party as you explore and complete various missions. If you've played any ARPG of the past, you have an idea of what to expect here.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_4hXxG5cuUl9gcocJGjSbkZhX4vSBQwAbyE2z4bDitGsLYWL7iPnC5P8cJbIBqUVD34klf0-_Fga7YB51s6JBdK8COBOt4IpmxSaLwX42rkMkUj9_kk6JRwfg1H2X3KfltjmosaPdtT8SrtIFLG86lkwE_NaEtq1UZ90rP3Ckb1EA21sjboQ48UcdmE/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-18-08h45m07s206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_4hXxG5cuUl9gcocJGjSbkZhX4vSBQwAbyE2z4bDitGsLYWL7iPnC5P8cJbIBqUVD34klf0-_Fga7YB51s6JBdK8COBOt4IpmxSaLwX42rkMkUj9_kk6JRwfg1H2X3KfltjmosaPdtT8SrtIFLG86lkwE_NaEtq1UZ90rP3Ckb1EA21sjboQ48UcdmE/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-18-08h45m07s206.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But I have to say only an idea, since the Ys games tend to differentiate themselves from other games here in the style they apply. Unlike other ARPGs, hitting the enemy isn't necessarily enough to do damage, nor is being simply touched by one going to hurt you. This game's damage system is based on hitting an enemy properly while avoiding their attacks instead of just avoiding them themselves. This may sound easier (as I keep saying in every review of this franchise) but it allowed the devs to create animations that make combat more of a boxing match where you have to be aware of what your enemies do and take advantage of it. This is especially true as you will have nothing to speak of when it comes to ranged combat most of the time and while no "Souls-Like" taking a hit can be a lot more punishing then most of these game types, resulting in some of the most engaging combat this type of game can offer.</p><p>Nor is it even as straight forward as that since you will find combat damage is also splashed with a rock-paper-scissors flavor. Not for damage you take (enemies will do the same damage to you regardless of the type of attack they use), but Adol and his allies each use different types of weapons that break down into three damage types: slash, pierce, and crush. Some enemies will only take serious damage from one of these so who you have attacking can make a huge difference on the field. However, the game is also fairly forgiving with this since you will have up to three party members on the ground at any time and for the most part be able to swap both which of the three you are controlling as well as who's out and who's in reserve at will, making your combat unit incredibly flexible. You can even replace Adol from the party this time around if you so desire!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFtABdgzcB0CoWqWuCqgd16jg_nWjgpTcmNx0zFz5_YzD9ait8hC3V0C_bqWOzmVOErHXxlQS0KtfDW7OLBIDetGdWZIZUKafGHwKHBD1S2FiLpo0sDDivOGjbFD9rOcaNdp5m1ZD76rvPckPDexo-hMY5b7Jktrdzdachv83KioPZwso_oK8hi3bfCs/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-19-20h02m00s197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFtABdgzcB0CoWqWuCqgd16jg_nWjgpTcmNx0zFz5_YzD9ait8hC3V0C_bqWOzmVOErHXxlQS0KtfDW7OLBIDetGdWZIZUKafGHwKHBD1S2FiLpo0sDDivOGjbFD9rOcaNdp5m1ZD76rvPckPDexo-hMY5b7Jktrdzdachv83KioPZwso_oK8hi3bfCs/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-19-20h02m00s197.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But you should also be aware that just because the enemy doesn't have the same variety of damage types vs your allies weaknesses, that doesn't mean they are not packing some serious side-effects they can hit you with. There are several ailement types that you or the enemy can be inflicted with. Anything from poison to burning to freezing to even paralysis or darkened vision is possible here... but everyone, you and enemies, all have resistances to this too. When you are hit with the effect, you will see a circle with it's icon over the character with the issue's name with a white line around the outside. Until you take enough damage of this effect to fill that, you are resisting it. If it fills you either need to heal it or wait out that line reducing to nothing, making for some extra balance in how you fight.</p><p>But there will also be times when you have to deal with something big... both as bosses and enemies designed to require you to run like hell rather then fight. The latter are not so much interesting as either a sign you shouldn't be there yet or (in at least one case) something requiring you to sneak past it before it absolutely destroys you, showing you the true danger the island represents, but bosses are a spectacle all their own. In general you will know when you are coming up to them as the game will give you a place to completely heal up/remove ailments/artifact you can insta-travel to and from before the entrance to an obvious arena. This is also traditional to the franchise. Most of the games use stone tablets to mark these places, but this time, you will find them to be the form of pointed crystals jutting out of the ground. So use that space, go gear up, then come back for one hell of a fight.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkXuzLbtCgWXyUdM9oiuCK29KbDAbVSF_dISwVcabOImAgqIoqiFeVslCnjibMee8JrZlecuWKCBJ7Y_InNLDSMcR6vvgr0IqOrBVnpIusMWpPiT0xjLAK8MWibjbSoCFbxjXcYvnoEkQxlA6Imx4-aCi8fnFjOYE_UiqyIm0D1wHv1SIC-h1RD6YH_Q/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-19-20h03m13s630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkXuzLbtCgWXyUdM9oiuCK29KbDAbVSF_dISwVcabOImAgqIoqiFeVslCnjibMee8JrZlecuWKCBJ7Y_InNLDSMcR6vvgr0IqOrBVnpIusMWpPiT0xjLAK8MWibjbSoCFbxjXcYvnoEkQxlA6Imx4-aCi8fnFjOYE_UiqyIm0D1wHv1SIC-h1RD6YH_Q/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-19-20h03m13s630.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But gearing up will not be quite as simple as spending earned currency on new equipment and items. Being castaway on an uncharted island means that money of any sort means nothing at all. Rather as you find and rescue others on the island, you will have their talents to lean on, provided you can collect the materials they need to lend a hand. These people will act as crafting stations, allowing you to build better armor, upgrade your weapons, craft trinkets and medicines to take with you on your journey. Every time you rescue someone, they will add some new function to your homebase of Castaway Village. Furthermore there is also strength in numbers that will be demonstrated in the form of obstacles like mudslides and broken bridges that Adol simply can not pass on his own. Rather he will need to have found enough castways to dislodge whatever is in the way and access new parts of the island, using this as a way to expand the areas you can reach.</p><p>But there is always a price to be paid for such favors, and the name of the game this time is protection. At various times through your adventure, Adol will be called on to defend the gates of Castaway Village from waves of enemies in a new game-type called raids. Talk to Adol's life-long friend Dogi and you can build up the defences you will be able to use, but ultimately it will be you and your team against wave upon wave of monstrocities who want nothing more then to knock down that gate and destroy everything on the other side... including the other people! Only the first is absolutely necessary to do to complete the game, but when you finish based on how well you did, you will be given a whole bunch of materials as a reward so it's worth your time to do this.</p><p>And sometimes, the best defense is also a good offense, and this too will be offered as a game mode in the same fashion as raids. When you partake in one of these, you will enter a new location with a handful of nests and places to light torches. You will be given a number of waves during which you need to light all the torches and kill the nests in order to summon and defeat a final boss. Maybe it's the fact that you're on the offensive instead of the defensive, but I found myself enjoying this mode far more.</p><p>But overall, the whole game plays amazingly well, and flows great. It may not be quite on par with my current favorite game in the series, but there is a reason a lot of people love this game in particular.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> The only bug I came across when playing this title was actually in it's intro. The first scene has script/iconic drawings light up, but it looks more like the transition is artifacting into place, like a video that loads improperly. Other then that, though the game had zero issues at all.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Overall:</b> I really can't say anything bad about this game, at least outside the ending. It is a very solid action RPG and a great place for the mordern gamer to get their first taste of Adol's adventures. If you've been looking into trying out the Ys games, enjoy. If you, like me, have spent a lot of time with Adol, its still a great game and even adds some extra variety compared to what most of the series has offered so far. Either way, enjoy yourself. You are in for a good time.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Score:</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">8/10<br /></div><p><br /><b>System Requirements:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Intel Core i3-2100 running at 3.1 Ghz</li><li>4 GB RAM<br /></li><li>NVIDIA Geforce GTX 650 Ti</li><li>Windows 7/8/10<br /></li><li>30 GB hard drive space</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 5 5600G<b> </b>running at 3.9 Ghz</li><li>16 GB RAM</li><li>Windows 11</li><li><a href="https://www.pdp.com/en/shop/controller/pdp-dx-wired-controller-red" target="_blank">PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)</a></li></ul><p><b>Source: <a href="https://www.gog.com/en/game/ys_viii_lacrimosa_of_dana" target="_blank">gog.com</a></b></p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-83237301846976167442023-12-15T15:46:00.005-05:002023-12-17T11:44:14.471-05:00Persona 5 (PS3) Review<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/12/persona-5-ps3-review.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLPc_JpCl-oJsV02Ry_nuM7px0OGruuiq7gMiBb5xJQ0rrsEhDlDaZY6tFB7FaYQxyRSxqBsvZLzi_aXnSoMzInzYvmHPgr_ty6OZ675CBT-R1CwNM5jrz_f8PY_zvvps2iI5i2pSa5mWQuxyGYqzWmTvdxeP9GZk1i8JlPV0lFlIfZuH8pl0Ys8JIbWY/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h45m49s311.jpg" /></a></div><p>This is a game that's been waiting probably a lot longer then it should have. When it came out, I was excited to get my hands on it... until Atlus started coming after people for streaming the game like they thought people who didn't want to have it spoiled would not have the self control to just not watch. I put a damper on it, but ultimately I did get my hands on the game and put it in my backlog for several years... enough for me to play several other games in the franchise first. But I have to say it... this one was worth the wait.</p><p>Now before we continue, I must say that offhand, your experience with this game may vary from mine. My actual PS3 died a few years ago, so while I ripped the game myself, I was playing through an emulator. But with that in mind, let's get into it.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> You just got to Tokyo, but unfortunately, it is for less then stellar reasons. Expulsion from school has made it impossible for you to continue your education at home, so your parents did what they could and got you enrolled in Shujin Academy, the only place that would take you with your newfound criminal record. This change of schooling also meant a change in living locations. And a friend of the family offered to take you in for the school year as a temporary guardian. Not that you earned this new reputation fairly. Rather, you have been convicted of assault charges basically for trying to be a good Samaritan when encountering a drunken man trying to force a young woman into his car. Rather then save the woman in danger, all you did was turn the rage of a man with connections on you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSg8_wAKIIlsrvOAdhcczEiq4PZ-6bXR5ZVGCAiwUWE9ST8nwz_yH25CSDsY9VGJvhUunLSsSzvkM03SZ-X4zvcGbHTCzELVH9IdIYF68oYrKAcKnXhr19cb8sVQDHv4R9kcLRgKcSRhH6D8O_XkbaFoWsS0WvLt6Fn9A3FP7llQ8p-x5HWDwNft6s3g/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h47m47s158.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSg8_wAKIIlsrvOAdhcczEiq4PZ-6bXR5ZVGCAiwUWE9ST8nwz_yH25CSDsY9VGJvhUunLSsSzvkM03SZ-X4zvcGbHTCzELVH9IdIYF68oYrKAcKnXhr19cb8sVQDHv4R9kcLRgKcSRhH6D8O_XkbaFoWsS0WvLt6Fn9A3FP7llQ8p-x5HWDwNft6s3g/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h47m47s158.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And this reputation followed you to your new home. While the man taking care of you agreed to help, he makes it abundantly clear how reluctant he is, leaving you to live in the storage space above his coffee shop. The school is also well aware of your "past" and outside of one teacher who seems too tired to do much, pretty much looks at you as a pariah who they want to deal with as little as possible. Someone even spread the news to the student body, so this isn't just an issue with the teachers.</p><p>But even an outcast can make a friend or two, especially when he's not the only one. In this case a student named Ryuji, an ex-track runner who has his own reputation of a troublemaker, particularly as he is blamed for the track team's disbanding. But your lives as high-school buddies on the fringe is about to get a lot more interesting and effect a lot of people in the world, and it's all thanks to a small app that installs itself on your phone.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm44qe8zNZJJFnYOvsuhKwy22A03yZiIpiKlttFW4UR1eV9BoaqyP8V7uzfNFqMBySATPUET-q8ILBZO9Se0dqwoPFNwAlZTFcdoXYKIc5F4sVtOgXVmrU3PABFUmada7BgnpcHXakd5pFfmeOYdqHMDzyu9LUZpdLr5jDczdKlj4KMvlU6K6Z5GUT5nQ/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h49m39s935.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm44qe8zNZJJFnYOvsuhKwy22A03yZiIpiKlttFW4UR1eV9BoaqyP8V7uzfNFqMBySATPUET-q8ILBZO9Se0dqwoPFNwAlZTFcdoXYKIc5F4sVtOgXVmrU3PABFUmada7BgnpcHXakd5pFfmeOYdqHMDzyu9LUZpdLr5jDczdKlj4KMvlU6K6Z5GUT5nQ/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h49m39s935.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>For this is no ordinary phone application. It has no known developer and refuses to remain uninstalled. But if you use it with the right combination of a place, a name, and a keyword, it physically transports you to a parallel world warped by the desires of the people around you: the metaverse... and it isn't long before the connection between the places becomes very apparent as certain people have desires so corrupted they actively form their own nodes here. Known as palaces, these places house the warped inner workings of that person (known as their shadow) and reflect how rotten the person is in the real world.</p><p>With the stage set, I would prefer to let the game tell the rest of it's tale since it really does a fantastic job of it. But to give you the format, you will find the story broken down into a series of heists, both in story and dungeons. For story purposes, each focuses on one such corrupt individual's palace and taking it down in order to force them to reform from the inside out. And this game doesn't shy away from giving you a reason... ever. Your very first case, for example, is the gym teacher in you new school named Komoshida. The first time you see him, he appears a bit sketchy as he seems to be trying to pick up a fellow classmate on the way to school, but the depths of his depravity will be revealed as you begin to get to know your initial cast and culminating in your expulsion from Shujin at his hands as well! Thankfully you do have time to act however, since the order will be given at the next teacher meeting. So it's time to go change his heart by stealing from his palace the core desire that warped him so badly before he can ruin your life!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiakcl0Ro0ENMkNFKkVHyvchDSiEun3olIFyCYnl49KROSVLXHk7ItfFHJuAmEHSlY8Kp-10AA1h4fCNEackZvlrdj19S6NnJ_AcQjRcAEWmuhV7VHzmUeZw0btDBJYqx2gHxOxQj8X9iXZac1ATzDM7fCE0sWlBCdgeuJXBYABKg3np-OK_vJhE96prH8/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h48m21s718.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiakcl0Ro0ENMkNFKkVHyvchDSiEun3olIFyCYnl49KROSVLXHk7ItfFHJuAmEHSlY8Kp-10AA1h4fCNEackZvlrdj19S6NnJ_AcQjRcAEWmuhV7VHzmUeZw0btDBJYqx2gHxOxQj8X9iXZac1ATzDM7fCE0sWlBCdgeuJXBYABKg3np-OK_vJhE96prH8/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h48m21s718.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And while each heist has a similar format (new target picked due to events around you and your ever-growing team of phantom thieves followed by some reason that sets a time-frame the theft has to be completed within), they also all tie to a much bigger plot trickling details to you and hinting at the ripples in much bigger things you are causing or even forced to take part in. Simply put the writing itself here is actually really good in it's own right! Unfortunately though, there will be fans of the franchise who reach the end of the game and feel like they've been here before, however: particularly those who played the Persona 2 games. While the individual situations and day-to-day events are unique, masterfully done, and not afraid of to show the darkness in what's going on in the slightest, the final conflict feels like it was taken so much from this previous installment I was kinda disappointed to not see a certain Lovecraftian horror greet me for the final battle.</p><p>But the main event is not the only color you will get out of the plot of this game. As the series is now known for, there are also social links which will build up the story of your companions directly as well, giving interesting side-stories and insightful views on your friends. They are not at all connected to the main story, so you don't need to feel obligated to complete any of them to get it, but we will get into that when we get to the gameplay section. For now, just understand if someone grabs your attention, their could be something there to find out about that's worth the time.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> To the best of my knowledge, Persona 5 was the last AAA game released for the PS3, and simply put it shows. Right away you are escaping a brightly lit casino, jumping between neon lights and the scene simply looks amazing in it's own right, despite it's age. The crowd below you is lively and everything has this feel like it's been pulled out of a comic book world. The camera at this time is fixed in place, but the game uses that choice specifically to emphasize the scene and it's other-worldliness. Unless you have a situation like that, you can expect to be able to swing the camera around as needed, so do not expect it to be your enemy. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimycCKdsDKHbrrQjNnDoTGi472lLLJ4PhstofM4Y1XF2MZIzKNoo5PbLJ65chSM6xZL2z8d63Cc6LH-BBvwNZsifD75ZWGTaCriQUoXvTY_uJgd1LyyUG3BVFkyOOopt0hyphenhyphenaBqBAx4v6tXngiM7O7Gc-yenU1dsXumCXblg_DRfcvqSc8WKT8HJf_IGOU/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h46m11s147.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimycCKdsDKHbrrQjNnDoTGi472lLLJ4PhstofM4Y1XF2MZIzKNoo5PbLJ65chSM6xZL2z8d63Cc6LH-BBvwNZsifD75ZWGTaCriQUoXvTY_uJgd1LyyUG3BVFkyOOopt0hyphenhyphenaBqBAx4v6tXngiM7O7Gc-yenU1dsXumCXblg_DRfcvqSc8WKT8HJf_IGOU/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h46m11s147.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>The characters that make up this world are also very lively. For the most part people look normal, but enemies will definately stand out. You will find them basically black forms wearing the uniform of the area (this being a casino, they will be in business suites) and a mask reflective of them being nothing more then shadows. It looks cool and stylized as well as a stark contrast to your costumed heroes. And when the battle begins, you will see them for the monsters they are. If you've played anything in the past couple generations of gaming with the name Shin Megami Tensei or Persona in the name, you have an more than an idea of what to expect there: mythological creatures represented on the screen in beautifully styled models (since this is a 3D game in the series) against a backdrop of the dungeon you are in. If anything you might have too good an idea since the style of these models really hasn't changed. Yes there is more detail then the games in the earlier titles, but that's all that really changed as the technology allowed.</p><p>Not that your characters don't fit perfectly themselves. Each one looks cool in their own right, but their costumes are each unique and outlandish to once again feel almost like a comic book this time around when in these worlds. For example, Joker (your character) runs around in a black trenchcoat, red gloves, a white mask, and often a shit-eating grin, while Ryuji (known as Skull in costume) looks like he would be at home in Michael Jackson's Beat It music video if he ditched his skull mask. In any other scenario, they wouldn't fit, but here, they do brilliantly.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwPackkWMJb_bRGPzBNG33H5cGCxoS5Z9EzMiXN5JCuoSzIB2zPyQsni9wmBlCseLkdFh8HKVuXqT5KZnSot0J9Ne2acL_7PDgUxpRacxIZXEtZkjkhknTn6FVmSu7ShyphenhyphenqFvzdaeJlXnDD-qcPetUUc60oDrtu2opPiamwApHNeBMF5VpKx_ovIvl2UlA/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h46m21s410.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwPackkWMJb_bRGPzBNG33H5cGCxoS5Z9EzMiXN5JCuoSzIB2zPyQsni9wmBlCseLkdFh8HKVuXqT5KZnSot0J9Ne2acL_7PDgUxpRacxIZXEtZkjkhknTn6FVmSu7ShyphenhyphenqFvzdaeJlXnDD-qcPetUUc60oDrtu2opPiamwApHNeBMF5VpKx_ovIvl2UlA/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h46m21s410.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Meanwhile for all the bright lights, stark contrasts, and eccentricities you will see in the palaces, the real world is often itself a contrast, creating some fairly mundane and down to earth locations for your daily life while playing, making sure when you are in the spectacles that are the palaces you KNOW it.</p><p>All of this looks really good using a cell-shaded look to bind it all together, a choice that is kinda traditional for the franchise and serves it very well here. Simply put the game looks wonderful and really I wouldn't be all that surprised if the PS4 version only really increases the possible base resolution of the game (and maybe the framerate? The PS3 version is locked at 30 FPS).</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Like many games these days, the sound effects work, but often play second fiddle to everything else, especially for turn-based RPGs like this one. But that's more for the fact that they fall into the background then any lack of quality. The fact is this kind of thing is such high-caliber these days that it's more noticeable when the sound effects are bad.</p><p>What is noticeable here are the other things you will hear, the music and the voices. If I were to describe the music in this game, it's a generally mellow tone, taking it's inspiration from the very cafe shop you reside over. But that isn't to say it can't kick into gear when it wants to, amping up the tone and tempo when you are headed for a dungeon, reaching dark strides of an electric guitar when things get really serious. It won't blow your socks off, but you will get tension, chill time, and sometimes even a sense of foreboding and "cloak-and-dagger" feel from the tones the game plays for you.</p><p>But the real star, as also seems to always be the case these days, is the voice acting. Sadly not everything is this time around, but everyone seems absolutely on target whenever they are voiced. From the few times your character speaks at all (he usually nods or shakes his head and it's assumed he says what you chose from a menu selection) to the darkly amused Igor to the hotheaded Ryuji, everyone seems to just understand the personality they are playing and plays it up right. I honestly can't think of anything to say against the soundscape of this game.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> As noted in the graphical section, Persona 5 is played from a 3rd person perspective as you wander around the maps that make up the worlds you will play in, whether you're in the metaverse or the real world. But the real difference between this and other turn based RPGs is time. In this game, you have a calendar which will both be planned around and decide when certain things will happen. Each day will offer you slots you can fill with your actions for the day, balancing your school, social, and superhero life. Anyone who has played Persona 3 or 4 will already understand this balance. For everyone else, each day will show slices of the day and you will either witness/partake in an event (like for example in school you may have a chance to answer the teacher in class) or the game will open up and give you the chance to choose what you wish to do. Most of the time these open slots will be "after school" and "evening" but not always.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieL3gD6RBymWqtagnHs6Eai6pEp9jHSyeo7wTZewcv791diD4nufDOMvI-2EdQrsngke-lwAZrcy12zJTPChMUM_r4EBAIJadOgl6Qc1ExuwQOb_W3eudhq8tce-ujp6oIjzj-j5M9dJLUTxipf_wTTpamuPI0nvQkcpcBPDy7RRT9k2elv1LulkgoLp0/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h47m29s668.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieL3gD6RBymWqtagnHs6Eai6pEp9jHSyeo7wTZewcv791diD4nufDOMvI-2EdQrsngke-lwAZrcy12zJTPChMUM_r4EBAIJadOgl6Qc1ExuwQOb_W3eudhq8tce-ujp6oIjzj-j5M9dJLUTxipf_wTTpamuPI0nvQkcpcBPDy7RRT9k2elv1LulkgoLp0/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h47m29s668.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>When you do have that free time, you can wander anywhere you have unlocked in Tokyo, and you will have a variety of things you can do to fill that time. Do you think you need to gear up with better gear before you go into the metaverse again? Well there is a local shop that sells models of guns, armors, and accessories you can equip yourself with. Need some healing items? You have several choices of grocery stores and even a medical shop you can stock up in. Running short on cash? You can get a job and use one of your time slots to generate cash (or as I found far more useful, go back to that model shop and sell the things you pick up in the metaverse). And of course, you have the social aspects here in which you will have characters you can hang out with.</p><p>In previous games of the series, these hangout times were important since they meant the persona you create would gain more bonus experience when you make them. And this remains true here too, but this time, the scales have tipped to make them even more important. As the social link levels increase, each character (among the Phantom Thieves or not) will offer you additional abilities you can use in and out of combat. For example, anyone you take into battle will have the ability to gain anything from the ability to trade turns with each other and you after knocking over an opponent to even having the chance of taking a hit for you that would generally end your life (and the game). For those not in combat, you can gain abilities like the chance to not need to negotiate when capturing personas or even more freedom to change who's active in the fight mid-fight. Simply put the more you do here, the more options become available to you, the deeper combat can get, and the more edges you can take when the battle is hot and heavy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilHTlRMR5YOB-cTx8-0pUG7nQub7kVpnEfPYaWHAIkO7GeS3seZVH7ASNjv9znVo5k60yrJAF6JrQQ3UnRGGR3ljU_5StzeoLZVWgLoWzHS6kFLmHufN28gb87Hkq-kpPM3sfbi2sBUcxqjARf0DkLXW8NbFp5AQAWJ13FFowhd6YJJisYoBd1OhmFHrE/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h48m10s224.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilHTlRMR5YOB-cTx8-0pUG7nQub7kVpnEfPYaWHAIkO7GeS3seZVH7ASNjv9znVo5k60yrJAF6JrQQ3UnRGGR3ljU_5StzeoLZVWgLoWzHS6kFLmHufN28gb87Hkq-kpPM3sfbi2sBUcxqjARf0DkLXW8NbFp5AQAWJ13FFowhd6YJJisYoBd1OhmFHrE/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h48m10s224.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>In addition, activities will also boost your social stats. There are five of these, and while they do not do anything directly, they have a strong influence in what options become available to you (such as who will give you the time of day to build their social links or even how far you can take them), so making a point to work on these is also a good idea.</p><p>And finally, of course, you can visit the palaces themselves to take advantage of all the benefits these above choices give you. At this point, the game becomes a "stealth based" turn based RPG. You will make your way through the various palaces with the intention of hiding yourself to get the jump on the shadows that populate it, both giving you the edge in the fight and avoiding alerting everyone. You see the palaces have an alert meter which if a shadow catches you goes up and if you ambush one goes down. The higher it gets, the more dangerous the palace is and if it gets too high, you may even be forced to retreat, so ignore this aspect at your own peril.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNtBOJAgolD25X32hVMLvZM2FLId1Y5ZcP9ciDIhgiWs6ESpnMCTyQsfWStoM60qxW4hEFBB_d6t0iOwjyOexB85868GjC-BQWOO2BZc8qQpgrhv6HCWwRBUxk8FTy_DSZNheecP39GEYmCfXUX-mvov3luUcc74F-w-obazlcTJT1xqngrNn_xzESEM/s500/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h46m15s547.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNtBOJAgolD25X32hVMLvZM2FLId1Y5ZcP9ciDIhgiWs6ESpnMCTyQsfWStoM60qxW4hEFBB_d6t0iOwjyOexB85868GjC-BQWOO2BZc8qQpgrhv6HCWwRBUxk8FTy_DSZNheecP39GEYmCfXUX-mvov3luUcc74F-w-obazlcTJT1xqngrNn_xzESEM/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-12-15-11h46m15s547.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And of course those fights make up the meat of this part of the game. When a battle starts you will be given a screen with you and your enemies ready to rumble. Each character will get a turn in combat as you might expect attacking, defending, or applying some special effect to others in the battle and there are a lot of enemies with a lot of variety in what they can do, what you can do to them, as well as the types of attacks they are strong and weak to. The same is true for your team as each will have their own selection of moves they can do as well as which elements they are strong against or can hurt them exceptionally well. And compared to most RPGs there are a lot of them: 10 of them in fact, not including "almighty" which there are no strengths or weaknesses against at all. You will have to learn how to use the weaknesses of your enemies to your advantage while shielding your team from their own to make it through this one.</p><p>In each of these palaces, there is also a specific goal you are trying to complete. Your mission is to find the treasure you are supposed to steal with enough time before whatever ill fate failing to take it will cause to send a calling card and head in for a final conflict to steal it and avert that fate. This may sound daunting, but you generally have 2-3 weeks of in-game time to complete any of these palaces and really you can do it in 2-3 days. So do not let this element hold you back from enjoying the game. It's there more to move the plot along then to be a challenge.</p><p>The end result of all of this, however, is a very well balanced RPG which on top of a great story just never stops feeling like a great game to play from beginning to end.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>As should be the case on a game for a console that is ending it's life, this game had absolutely zero bugs I could see in it. And as an extra bonus, this was done without ANY patches. They never released any updates for this game: what was on the disc is exactly what you got. GREAT JOB, ATLUS!</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> Once again, we have a swan-song for a platform on our hands and just like <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2013/03/xenoblade-chronicles-wii-review.html" target="_blank">the last time I said this about a game</a>, is one hell of a last hurrah! True, it's not quite as good as <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2022/08/shin-megami-tensei-iv-apocalypse-3ds.html">SMT IV: Apocalypse</a>, but what can I say, I just like the turn system of the main franchise over the traditional turn base we get here. But that aside, this is an absolutely fantastic game and sits among the best I've played.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ex2VIyj1azA/UN-GGooZXDI/AAAAAAAAAT8/sDRkfaa1aew/s144/score%25209.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ex2VIyj1azA/UN-GGooZXDI/AAAAAAAAAT8/sDRkfaa1aew/s144/score%25209.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><div><b>Source: </b>Available on PS3 and PS4</div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-23067901155375753492023-11-09T18:30:00.002-05:002023-11-09T18:30:13.827-05:00Extra Life in 2 days!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSa9XijuQBszJb9gotCf6rLTIDPL3dIOefvV8EplZWnIWz3f0VG5jarxEHoydlTZtLBCIl2WNT6oFj8KyrcHge866gUfig09LsMpOmK76rQRxn6L-E4yMLGPXcu9jFZdA3iNQxNOlohXB4TJRBYMPel80gMmVO5wMt-eo-Ekl5tYcnB4feJcn1q6jEqx8/s400/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSa9XijuQBszJb9gotCf6rLTIDPL3dIOefvV8EplZWnIWz3f0VG5jarxEHoydlTZtLBCIl2WNT6oFj8KyrcHge866gUfig09LsMpOmK76rQRxn6L-E4yMLGPXcu9jFZdA3iNQxNOlohXB4TJRBYMPel80gMmVO5wMt-eo-Ekl5tYcnB4feJcn1q6jEqx8/s16000/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" /></a></div><br /><p>While for many Gameday has come and gone, this weekend is generally seen as the Rainday. For those of us who couldn't play on the official day of any reason this is traditionally when we get to it, and get to it we shall. Expect Rhel and I to begin bright and early on Saturday and go right on through to Sunday morning, and we are asking you to come on in for the fun!</p><p>If you want to watch our individual streams you can find <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/pastelrhel/" target="_blank">Rhel here</a> and you can find <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/megabyte114" target="_blank">me right here</a>, but where would the fun be if we kept the team apart? We can both be on your screen at once with a nice little site called Multitwitch... just join us <a href="https://www.multitwitch.tv/pastelrhel/megabyte114" target="_blank">here to get a view of it all!</a></p><p>And what is it a view of? Well <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" target="_blank">Extra Life</a>, of course! Throughout the year as gamers, we have sponsored and asked for sponsoring support so that we can play games to help sick kids who need it most, and tomorrow we will play the 24 hour marathon that was decided for! It's also still not too late to donate and help us help the kids.. it never is. They need help no matter the day after all, so please feel free to join us and help out. If you wish to reach our team page you can do so with the graphical link below.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutDown" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="161" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmp42UtVDiNWki7XMZi20r0jH7ORpOkcY9QaasqbIiJ0UBQ33MYzaTj6LOv19Uf_itghy-ZbG3rpzsBryFJUzzHBUWpeJ-IBM-u4ZKiBgx2Ks9meGChbEI17TMXGprx4mutMvKemhPgKTtuFarBsT1f_ROL_9cTaj8Zu4HJ-csj4GGtNigJ2ljf6FRV-Q/s16000/SUPPORTME_small-320x161-9b6768fa-cc9e-442b-99c0-8144342059d1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thank you again and see you this weekend!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- Megabyte</div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-27397881922441510102023-10-23T23:54:00.002-04:002023-10-23T23:54:55.717-04:00Strange Brigade (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/10/strange-brigade-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvbiEE2UvaaGjUw1RbErbUZAu4lS1vxTqWDD5RYICeDIdw8PrLblnVNk4Yub5Z7AZM38bsf31ixn6O7Sk_mV10nyffpH3BQHVNSAfL42V88m_zR9kX4lLKwtUHifFtGaofBrdm4MAh3H7DeIqgBVy9TdnKZ9hQgXzerIyikhDkiq-yqh9BMK-2WI5GKsg/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h31m33s134.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Last year I got my group this game for Christmas with the intent that we would get together and bust up some mummies, but no one seemed ready to jump any time soon. This is not a shocker as we are PC gamers on Steam, so the idea of a backlog is far from alien to any of us. So when the dice chose it in this time of all things spooky, I decided that it would be ok to go it alone... and go it alone I did.</p><p>Now as my mouse rests, I have to say it was a pretty good choice, and while I will not do this again on my own, I will happily go again as part of that team. It was a fun time, but had that spark of just how much more fun it can be if you fight along side your friends.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Welcome to the Strange Brigade, an secret elite team of agents for Britain. Lead by the mysterious leader Lady Webster, you and your three teammates guard the world of the 1930s from the horrors the civilized world simply do not believe exist. And today, your talents are needed more then ever. The unfortunate truth is despite another member of the organization's best efforts, a major archeological discovery was recently unearthed, unleashing the dark queen of Egypt who was once entombed within. Seteki lives again! And now she can begin to enact her evil plans from beyond the grave. What are those plans? How will you stop her? And how can you make sure she will never threaten the world of the living ever again? Tune in to find out!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99acS7Eah9ItIfgjvCrcGU4-y3uoAoS5B18LyTGQ2mKwNstKprJjIkLQRrWotG8CsdTSOsIAW-nWB_ERLSLPM39N1FYM-B2oAgjj8FaQmKRakAAzzAFtkkYxUTlnilHuM00sfMiWLxFf5LzeEwFXy1JiA2oeGAPLa2sxsvTtWR0xI5ht9b3-9JwNI8zA/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h31m43s209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99acS7Eah9ItIfgjvCrcGU4-y3uoAoS5B18LyTGQ2mKwNstKprJjIkLQRrWotG8CsdTSOsIAW-nWB_ERLSLPM39N1FYM-B2oAgjj8FaQmKRakAAzzAFtkkYxUTlnilHuM00sfMiWLxFf5LzeEwFXy1JiA2oeGAPLa2sxsvTtWR0xI5ht9b3-9JwNI8zA/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h31m43s209.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And I chose that way to put rather deliberately, for the story is played out like a 1930s serial you might expect to see in a movie theater before the main film, complete with a narrator to comment on the events. These episodes (there are 9 of them) will make up your adventure in small chunks that each will take an hour or two to finish up. There are no real twists and turns to this game's story. Rather before you play each episode, you will get a message from Lady Webster on the radio to explain what her researchers have figured out so far and where you are going to further your plans to stop this impending doom from approaching. It's formulaic, but at the same time, the format it's told in molds perfectly for it, making the whole thing a rather solid piece.</p><p>In addition there are details you can find in the game in the form of notes you can find as you play, offering insight into things like what Seteki's rule was like or the backstories of our intrepid heroes. These are strictly optional, but can be a fun little window to pause the game for a second and view.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> This is a much more modern title then I find myself playing as often as not, and it shows drastically. You will play from a 3rd person perspective as you traverse each of the game's 9 levels, and the world you will traverse is absolutely gorgeous. From lush jungles to sandy deserts to caves and ruins, this game manages to keep a keep everything just looking spectacular, keeping the mood of an adventure across foreign and forgotten lands perfectly.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXrsk2q6Hufq5HvfQs9uySGG_F5an2sI6f6pzL9oXfKmmtfzbB_cEhD2cd0s_CSm31bbzdqFZ-HiIwmS5ceCJwfrOMj_z_kdxyTu8NBVHgt2SEoNnXiZD3q5y_FYj45XwgkL6R1dCNZxupH-svSdcomhOP-WrkW2W-mcK0BvJ8cHDPWh3NZGqpig-eEs/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h33m32s494.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXrsk2q6Hufq5HvfQs9uySGG_F5an2sI6f6pzL9oXfKmmtfzbB_cEhD2cd0s_CSm31bbzdqFZ-HiIwmS5ceCJwfrOMj_z_kdxyTu8NBVHgt2SEoNnXiZD3q5y_FYj45XwgkL6R1dCNZxupH-svSdcomhOP-WrkW2W-mcK0BvJ8cHDPWh3NZGqpig-eEs/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h33m32s494.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And the Egyptian motif is never forgotten, even when it takes a temporary back seat (as it will from time to time), as just about everything you face in these glorious lands has a base in the mythology. Mummies and the undead make up most of their ranks, changing up more in how they are equipped then makeup. But that style of variety fits perfectly when your main enemy is damned souls of the undead serving their dark mistress.</p><p>And they not only get the look, but the motion as well. The shambling hoard look great in action from a distance until they get close enough to break into a run, all with uneven motion that suggests their nature all the more of things that should not be moving anymore.</p><p>It all comes together for a beautifully crafted set of scenarios that live up to what you would expect out of a triple A experience.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Musically, this game is a lot more of a standard then anything special. You can expect most of the game to go between ambiance and some light drumming and ominous tones to set the mood with little else outside the world beaming into your ears (ironically sometimes that including the tinny sound of an old radio you might have expected to see in the game's timeframe sitting nearby). Basically you might get some music for boss fights and closed off arenas, but even that really isn't going to happen all the time.</p><p>Thankfully those sounds that make up most of the soundtrack actually sound really good. From mummies moaning to skeletons creaking to your weapons cracking off shots, everything is just perfectly balanced here.</p><p>Still, these are not the audio parts you will remember. Rather that will be the voice acting. The main cast all sounds good and carry their personalities brilliantly... including the narrator. And while he may not have anything to do with the plot so much as comments, he is effectively the focus here and absolutely perfect! Even going so far as to react to you directly if you manage to annoy him yourself (which I did to my delight).</p><p>Overall this is not a game that sounds as good as it looks, but it sounds fine and definitely will bring you a few highlights.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> As noted in the graphical section of this review, Strange Brigade is a 3rd person shooter having you track all across the lands of Egypt, and looks gorgeous doing it. When you start, you will pick one of 4 characters who make up the dynamic team, each with their own equipment and abilities. For example I played the game as Frank Fairburne, a crack-shot sharpshooter who used to be part of Britain's finest on the battlefield before being recruited to the much more secretive and elite world of the Strange Brigade. As such, my playthrough had different available base and upgrade weapons others might have if they picked other team members.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2w68uBIKJqsDtitwsWrdPveLNUpgxLZP_6iIGgTyL96A2ZPj44n075jL46BQR3YsYOsyZX1oRaA8iUc3bjAyc1JwFgi01pniadBBV8STInmmpzzy0RFBLriEd485uBsSrLfzyRE9y-u8_46WZYjlqxxW0CM_YkDSLp_a4BxqEX9bwzoHC5ejA3-14TQ/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h33m18s605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2w68uBIKJqsDtitwsWrdPveLNUpgxLZP_6iIGgTyL96A2ZPj44n075jL46BQR3YsYOsyZX1oRaA8iUc3bjAyc1JwFgi01pniadBBV8STInmmpzzy0RFBLriEd485uBsSrLfzyRE9y-u8_46WZYjlqxxW0CM_YkDSLp_a4BxqEX9bwzoHC5ejA3-14TQ/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h33m18s605.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>You will gain these upgrades by collecting treasure during your adventures. Sometimes it is simple coin, sometimes relics where your goal is to complete sets. After each mission, rewards will be divided up between you and your team and you will have the option to spend any money you've earned on new weapons, of which you will always carry three: a main weapon, a sidearm, and a thrown device. You can further upgrade most of these by applying gems you find on the way to them, granting things like a faster reload or ricocheting bullets.</p><p>But the hardest thing to upgrade is your amulet... this requires you to gain skill points which is why those relic sets are important. You complete one, you get a point.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDL05MVohWruSjcqS-x_8PF7QTGObea5zFE7VRVdG60KjvDELpGfsbmsTpcQ5VmrrsGhCG5AFF_w9yc3HwfB6CXb3YuFnrDtoklPn2EPk0bb73E2FhXxbPU0feiJOapskOxqoTQH9VLZWUE24KzWam2rucrVXfeZKy2_v4cUeAjvPiV8agQui4qBxUNA/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h34m57s292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDL05MVohWruSjcqS-x_8PF7QTGObea5zFE7VRVdG60KjvDELpGfsbmsTpcQ5VmrrsGhCG5AFF_w9yc3HwfB6CXb3YuFnrDtoklPn2EPk0bb73E2FhXxbPU0feiJOapskOxqoTQH9VLZWUE24KzWam2rucrVXfeZKy2_v4cUeAjvPiV8agQui4qBxUNA/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-23-19h34m57s292.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But yes, I did just gloss over a detail. While I played this game solo, it was not designed for this. Rather you are supposed to go in with up to 3 other players to form a full team and sadly the game will make you suffer if you do not! Simply put this game was balanced for 4 players to be blasting through the hoards of undead, but they don't even give you bots if you go it alone, so expect the crowds to overwhelm you more then they should. Sure the game is still fun and I had a great time, but I couldn't help but lament the fact that none of my friends had the game were giving the game a go and if you don't bring your own, there is likely not going to be anyone to join you out there. The game just didn't take off, so the multiplayer it was designed for is pretty much dead. I also wouldn't say much for replayability this time around. The maps are all standard, so once you've done them, there is little reason to play through the game again unless, of course, you find yourself with a team who wants to go in and needs a 4th.</p><p>Still the setups for the hoards are really good in their own right, often giving you interesting maps to lay waste to them in, and the bosses are actually something to behold, giving you several truly unique encounters before the game is through. You may not want to come back after you finish, but you will enjoy your stay while it lasts.</p><p>7/10</p><p><b>Bugs: </b>I can say quite happily the only bugs in this game were the scarab swarm you have to shoot down from time to time. The game itself ran like a dream.</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> Overall I have to say this is a very good game, but one I wish had not slid under so many radars. It's good playing alone, but it just has that "if more people were playing it" energy that stops it from being amazing. It simply needed more players. If you can get a group of friends to join you, this will be a great time as you beat back the undead hoards. Even if you take it on alone, you will enjoy it, but you might need to tone it down due to balance issues.</p><p>Either way, this is a trip to Egypt worth taking... but if you can do it as a group, you will get even more out of it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Ryzen 3 2200G or Intel CPU Core i3-2100</li><li>4 GB RAM </li><li>NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750 Ti or AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB VRAM required)</li><li>35 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 7 or 10 (64-bit only)</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/312670/Strange_Brigade/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-63754182591277940452023-10-14T20:05:00.005-04:002023-10-14T20:05:56.361-04:00Into the Dangerous World I Leapt (PC) Review<p>Once again we find ourselves at the end of a game picked to show off for Extra Life, but turned out to be a single sitting game. In this case, we sat down to a class project that looked like it was going to be an intriguing little horror game to play for the Halloween holidays.... I was hopeful since I have played other school project games that not only left me ecstatic, but hyped to see the game read a full release (incidentally since they treated it as an update, that game is back in my backlog now). This time, however, while I can appreciate what was attempted and even achieved, it didn't hit nearly as well.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Welcome to 1801, a time in human history a lot rougher to live then we live today. Back then going to school was a luxury for the rich since many children, in order to help the family survive, would have to give up such a dream and go get work as well. You and your brother are two such children who currently live in the dorms of and work at a textile factory. But there is something odd about this particular factory. Kids working here occasionally just go missing. The management look the other way in most cases and claim the child either found a better place to work or just couldn't take it and left... but when your brother is one of those kids, you simply don't buy it. (Especially as he seems to disappear in the middle of the night.) The next morning you begin looking for him.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpWVszHkcIGH9gRXSejeDAugAhmeRvj2qkI3Ks-EXhMdoyW-wac4dDLGBAnzkIFbuVH6ALEz_DS6JdL9Ev4SKlVCJNXGA9XXAg8kx0zTUK6Y5zN9E23HCU-_nGYXzmV4MDIA61X3ocjPrQ5e6-WHhALEFQeaiFA2P463z1Of8S5ilCP63L2t3nXbdPcZc/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-14-18h45m15s290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpWVszHkcIGH9gRXSejeDAugAhmeRvj2qkI3Ks-EXhMdoyW-wac4dDLGBAnzkIFbuVH6ALEz_DS6JdL9Ev4SKlVCJNXGA9XXAg8kx0zTUK6Y5zN9E23HCU-_nGYXzmV4MDIA61X3ocjPrQ5e6-WHhALEFQeaiFA2P463z1Of8S5ilCP63L2t3nXbdPcZc/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-14-18h45m15s290.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>From this point you will play the roll of Idony in her quest and quickly find yourself dealing with more then normal means... for this factory has a dark side... literally. And due to an artifact, you will find yourself able to transfer between them at will.</p><p>Unfortunately, outside of this basic idea, I can't really say much about the story of this game... at all. The search never really takes center stage, nor is the opening cutscene clear about what's going on. All it makes clear is you are going to work as a little kid in the Industrial revolution before you wake up in the middle of the night to begin the game. If you didn't read it in the description of the game, there is nothing to clue you in you woke up because your brother is missing, and it will be random luck if you manage to open a window to start your search, not having a clue why you are actually up (or having read it and now looking for any way to begin your search). And it only gets more obscure from there.</p><p>Even the ending just... isn't really much of a payoff.</p><p>3/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Honestly I have to give the game a lot more credit when it comes to graphics than story, because it honestly looks pretty good. You will play Idony in a first person perspective, and while nothing here really looks real, it's never meant to. Rather there is a lot here that looks more like you might be walking around a set inspired by Tim Burton's stop-animation works. The world is drab, and muted... it's even a little bit grimy and warn in. You will see other kids (and one adult) standing around and populating the place, but they look almost more like dolls then people by their very style. I might even go so far as to suggest this was by design to show how interchangeable the workforce at this time would have been.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2IDsGraqTcrNp7CgNRaHu7wI0KSxi-5Yngwa2s0tvZgF0wvFVvtCLNMxtRjCDxqr7k8-kQxEFN6uW-fwmTVqPjsrMnq9L2XmXSpv6v_sCb8C1q4bw9-P6owP0zLZIUHnkkhoPzzUpYvYq5AbJHE3i8tNKqPhD370bwnWecGM4QvQ1rwQbJc_DSH6edQ/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-14-18h45m36s574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2IDsGraqTcrNp7CgNRaHu7wI0KSxi-5Yngwa2s0tvZgF0wvFVvtCLNMxtRjCDxqr7k8-kQxEFN6uW-fwmTVqPjsrMnq9L2XmXSpv6v_sCb8C1q4bw9-P6owP0zLZIUHnkkhoPzzUpYvYq5AbJHE3i8tNKqPhD370bwnWecGM4QvQ1rwQbJc_DSH6edQ/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-14-18h45m36s574.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But then you use the artifact to enter the "dark world" and everything changes. I more want to call this the "evil world" then dark for here the colors are vibrant as all hell, often looking as much like a ferver-dream funhouse as they do like anything else... not that this takes away from the disturbing elements here. Faces stare blanky from all surfaces while arms reach out from anywhere and ungodly horrors live in the walls. It's frankly hellish in design and I can do nothing but approve of what they did here!</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> This, I can not be so kind about. There is just incredibly little here to work with. Most of the game has no music, leaving that for just opening and end credits... but there is also very little ambiance here either, leaving a lot of the game to you only hearing your footsteps (which due to them never changing despite what you are walking on, will fade away and not even be good for a creepy vibe).</p><p>Outside of this, you will basically be limited to occasional sound effects from picking things, up, completing a puzzle or getting an item, or "hmms" from anyone you speak to as their text plays below. None of this really varies either.</p><p>Oh don't get me wrong, there are occasions you get more sound then this, but not a lot, and most of it just establishes you are outside or the like. There is just incredibly little here for a game that wants to last a few hours.</p><p>4/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> In essence, Into the Dangerous World I Leapt is a first person engine carrying a point and click adventure. You will wander around, talk to characters, and collect items you will use in puzzles to open new places and progress the story. However, for all the sense and ability of the game to connect itself together, there is little to clue you into what you are supposed to do and leaving you lost as often as not. You will most likely fumble from one scene the the next, looking to see what makes sense to use where and in which world, or even where you may have the option to go. It's kind of a mess in this way.. and that's before you get to the major issue a lot of point and click games, have: moon logic.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR3k1eF6DNXtLb86FrjkNPU6L64ppILr_79R2YfZGoo5ZEHKBZ59SxMwEvJ_C52YxjucQNJ2K2IcpqoHquHG2FQEBTaImNYFp6SOiY2zh32sahvcm1vkFfW6ZDZOppsEi6stJiaWKjAS9VjKfqQVHPJYRgOdVthgcAT3XjHZFiUuOuA8NO-8yhyphenhypheniHpjjQ/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-14-18h46m37s290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR3k1eF6DNXtLb86FrjkNPU6L64ppILr_79R2YfZGoo5ZEHKBZ59SxMwEvJ_C52YxjucQNJ2K2IcpqoHquHG2FQEBTaImNYFp6SOiY2zh32sahvcm1vkFfW6ZDZOppsEi6stJiaWKjAS9VjKfqQVHPJYRgOdVthgcAT3XjHZFiUuOuA8NO-8yhyphenhypheniHpjjQ/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-14-18h46m37s290.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Simply put the times what you see being a clue to what you are supposed to do are the minority. You need to get inside the developer's head to see what they were thinking, more so then many of the most infamous point and click games of old would make you do this. That is not particularly surprising as this is a school project that had to be finished with just 10 weeks for class, but when you add to this that you are expected to play the entire thing in a single setting and the frustration levels are going to rise. You may well want a walkthrough guide for this one (as I will admit to using after the came crashed twice to not waste the chance I had to see the rest of it, but more on that in a second).</p><p>5/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>This game actually ran very well... when it ran. Unfortunately there is a game-ending bug in this one, for in the dormitories for whatever reason, this game is prone to crash. Now, if the game was designed so you could save, maybe this wouldn't be as big a deal since if you had the patience, you could reload and try again till you get past the point where you need to complete a puzzle there, you could finish the game without restarting it completely. But the game does NOT have this function, so if this crash happens you are going to have to quit the game and start again. Not that the game makes that easy. For me both times this happened, I saw the game freeze before the screen went to my desktop with an error saying it lost the D3D device... and I had to close the game via task manager before it would let me have control of the desktop (or draw Steam's windows) again. When I finally got past the issue, I did so without OBS running to stream anymore, so either the two programs didn't like each other, or as I said, I got lucky.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/1674810/discussions/0/3090023948254939151/?ctp=2" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6cUXpjbB8RK-bFVGErXjcWB1vEpOFu_jOWSLiuwH69h0QOIibt6u5FKYIZbOmEHmcU4joMUXhpFw3pdMTwVDSzbKKccLTIAJU8OtruBYV8uYoOAo3g6ryTz40zpSQt3An6tkbuw5I3XRnPVAhN9PyIhLUKczwzPqPj0bgcIChl9CFnylQyjSaulK6BM/s16000/not%20fixing%20anything%20anymore.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Furthermore, the developers have no intention of fixing this. If you look at their Steam discussion page for this game, there is a closed thread for finding bugs, and someone reported exactly what I saw where I saw it, and a similar build to my own PC (little better CPU... little worse GPU). In the very next post (and 1 week later), the devs closed it saying they were basically done. Considering this is a class project, it's both a very impressive job and not something I can blame them for being done with. But when I can reliably crash the game and I'm not the only one, I can't let that cloud how I judge the game.</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> As a class project, this is simply amazing, and I can only hope the devs got top grades for putting something this ambitious and thought out together from scratch in a mere 10 weeks. But as an actual gaming experience, I can not be so kind. It has atmosphere, but it has no clear reason for anything going on... and that goes for the puzzles, the moment-to-moment of the story, and even the rather odd ending. Add to this the massive bug that will remain and stop many gamers dead in their tracks, and I just can not recommend this one... free or not.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OJ0oadxr05k/UN-GFas4MKI/AAAAAAAAATc/SlLnnfky0hE/s144/score%25200.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OJ0oadxr05k/UN-GFas4MKI/AAAAAAAAATc/SlLnnfky0hE/s144/score%25200.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>0/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Intel Core i5 8400 running at 2.89 Ghz </li><li>8 GB RAM </li><li>NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1050 ti</li><li>5 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 10</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1674810/Into_the_Dangerous_World_I_Leapt/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(In case you have better luck, this game is on <a href="https://sorrowsmall.itch.io/intothedangerous" target="_blank">itch.io</a> as well... as always, scan anything you download)</span></div><br />Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-45433622703889525172023-10-04T13:21:00.005-04:002023-10-04T13:21:50.560-04:00Shadowgrounds (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/10/shadowgrounds-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="98" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9azHOuK0VvZn_lhNyYvkN_fmd-FX-otDjDU4mfT542bBQfzUpesnWnmNS_5xzo4e7ZYpQgntWWvmx_4lf-yeMOWDk36wVpg7aaLuW-Tq0c0rqONpabSD3rJHf4AsPCBewmvK6p2zOFSqPeQWhDlexEreQVm7a4cA4tfKGVx82Y2J4N33xPLdokc7qj7I/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h27m57s984.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Today we get to visit an old game that hasn't spent very long in the backlog. Rather I picked it up for little more then I might have spent in the arcade to play a game of Mortal Kombat as a kid, so it was a no brainer to pick up and try. And promising to be "Doom 3 meets Smash TV" it sounded like it could be a really fun time (I love both games). I can't say I was wrong, but I also wouldn't call it as good as either individually. Come on in.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Welcome to Ganymede: a massive leap in progress for mankind. Originally a barren lifeless rock, this giant moon of Jupiter was terraformed and the colony of New Atlantis had a chance to bloom and blossom into the outpost it is today for the future of the species.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_VNys7dTtJMcI4Y9WHH_TWgumwPxMFgtwVhSmTx28j709C9OgQLOy6xroeWBWtRKncPxTVpWYGilmeQ2T7nU0E4DhrXP1Qx74v7GmBiZxO7kLEtOgMz9Dniy9Pe4HEPQUjWU-7YDk5h4ZCv7Gll9DsbYSMmu5hyphenhyphendnZ20J3pwdirgHXTtyMOw57HoyYAM/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m05s096.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_VNys7dTtJMcI4Y9WHH_TWgumwPxMFgtwVhSmTx28j709C9OgQLOy6xroeWBWtRKncPxTVpWYGilmeQ2T7nU0E4DhrXP1Qx74v7GmBiZxO7kLEtOgMz9Dniy9Pe4HEPQUjWU-7YDk5h4ZCv7Gll9DsbYSMmu5hyphenhyphendnZ20J3pwdirgHXTtyMOw57HoyYAM/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m05s096.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Here in this location, Tyler is simple mechanic and today is not one of his best days. The power just died and his boss is on his ass to get it fixed yesterday. But this does not seem to be a normal power outage, as he and his crew soon find out... though only Tyler himself lived through the discovery. The place is infested with alien creatures. Tyler was able to bring the power plant online before escaping, but not before he got a radio call from Corporal Jane Awryn with the worst possible news: this infestation is not limited to the plant. She's been cornered by it in the water treatment facility nearby. This situation is colony wide.</p><p>From this basic point you will follow Tyler as he finds himself "recruited" by the local military in their attempts to fend of the invasion and protect the civilian population from this newfound hell in their midst, but don't expect many twists in this tail. This story does progress and even give you a very good reason for every step you and the team you are helping take before the credits roll, but it's all very straight forward and fairly superficial. It's basically enough to function as a story and little else.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyCuP1S-Q4Lu-2fzgtZPf6cpwq9uAdD4jUpPrkmRUyYjdtBISP480wqFlc1nC_9OYvq5SHbYsQi3nra-I_ZvWOgFipJ1ZqCcPiZMdz4iLh2OvHiW9ldS5hzQ0csTcfNShl0T79Frm-7eQLJD6bZucQ8zDVFs8XpUWyV_JPaqi12zKN3aJb7QuQJDz7yhA/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m35s365.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyCuP1S-Q4Lu-2fzgtZPf6cpwq9uAdD4jUpPrkmRUyYjdtBISP480wqFlc1nC_9OYvq5SHbYsQi3nra-I_ZvWOgFipJ1ZqCcPiZMdz4iLh2OvHiW9ldS5hzQ0csTcfNShl0T79Frm-7eQLJD6bZucQ8zDVFs8XpUWyV_JPaqi12zKN3aJb7QuQJDz7yhA/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m35s365.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>In fact the only real twist to this game is a real M. Night Shyamalan moment with a detail revealed as the game is brought to an end, but it's just so dumb that I have to explain it DESPITE it being part of the final cutscene. So if you are sensitive to spoilers, you might want to skip the indented and italicized that follows:</p><blockquote><p><i>After you finish the last boss onboard the alien mothership itself, you return to join Jane and a Dr. Howard Wiess at the center of it. Your mission, set off an "anti-matter bomb" that will blow the ship up from the inside out. And this is when the rest of the species of alien running the show greet you. In this final cutscene, they admit defeat and explain why they invaded with such force: this bomb. They explain how they were absolutely horrified that mankind had been testing these devices, the smallest of which had atomized large asteroids. But this one? This one that was small enough for a single human to carry was also big enough to destroy the ship and the solar system with it. Setting it off would kill all of mankind, and they were attacking to reclaim the materials used to make it. When begged like this, the good doctor turns off and turns the bomb over to the aliens, who send you home and promise to pull back their forces before leaving.</i></p></blockquote><p>It is simply put one of the lamest "what a twist" endings I have ever seen in game, movie, or book... ever. If you came here for something satisfying in the fiction, you are sadly in the wrong place.</p><p>4/10 </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> This game as I put down the mouse and keyboard is almost 20 years old, and it shows. Don't get me wrong while you are playing, the game actually looks quite good for the most part. You will play form a bird's eye view behind Tyler, way up over everything, and from here the detail to the world really does look right. The outside is often dark and rainy, lit only by your shoulder-mounted flashlight, streetlights (when around), and fiery debris. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfSfwFtv9X9FFyVpCDl-476SKXzOytSFhlgRGo3Bx12nitZ6H-Wkoqo8_sdh7k7ZrGwqLI5yix-BWLHLLJZPsoDttPbKYp9wOTUnrcTCrwSPlkHTFFbHvNwZfLYHOyS8SurZ2Ey_vKwse9V503jTwehlwh-sSPGjIHKh0JZ9n2ZfJUfGmP0Up_9g8S-4c/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m57s900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfSfwFtv9X9FFyVpCDl-476SKXzOytSFhlgRGo3Bx12nitZ6H-Wkoqo8_sdh7k7ZrGwqLI5yix-BWLHLLJZPsoDttPbKYp9wOTUnrcTCrwSPlkHTFFbHvNwZfLYHOyS8SurZ2Ey_vKwse9V503jTwehlwh-sSPGjIHKh0JZ9n2ZfJUfGmP0Up_9g8S-4c/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m57s900.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And when inside this also holds true as well. You will go through offices, maintenance areas, military constructions, and refinery areas without thinking twice since it fits the brilliantly together to show a world that, while a little grimy with the work of terraforming the land to fit human need, suggests both the leisure and utilitarian needs of the people living there. Once again, the lighting backing this is fantastic for the day and still look very good today, enough so I really do need to focus on it for just a second.</p><p>This is easily the highlight of the game's technical looks, as everything casts proper shadows or is lit as the light sources would suggest. True, these sources can be a little harder then one would expect now, but for it's time, this really does look absolutely fantastic!</p><p>But sadly the creatures and characters populating this world do hold it back a bit more. Don't get me wrong, everyone looks "ok" from the distance you will play the game from, but none of it looks "great." Tyler and his crew look alright in the field as do the aliens, if often far more simplistic then the world might suggest.... but the game tends to use close ups of the models when anyone talks, and these look absolutely terrible. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSLE2piJKT6Gc6SZzPFpVCPqJpC2FHClQjobBxxTfYy53Y5Prm5n3j5l0vcXJXQjLbxacF2e2qb1O26NFDjTbaHEkU5I62Jjj-xYBNRpkQIRfVcI4Jp3rK-gwipHqFpfRtwKUzYPRoUgKaN9yWcKktOeIlZ0IIT6VoRHsVkEVsCmRtzXkaWaIdlA1WCE/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m17s124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSLE2piJKT6Gc6SZzPFpVCPqJpC2FHClQjobBxxTfYy53Y5Prm5n3j5l0vcXJXQjLbxacF2e2qb1O26NFDjTbaHEkU5I62Jjj-xYBNRpkQIRfVcI4Jp3rK-gwipHqFpfRtwKUzYPRoUgKaN9yWcKktOeIlZ0IIT6VoRHsVkEVsCmRtzXkaWaIdlA1WCE/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h28m17s124.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>What we get are dead expressions we are lucky when they blink at all sitting on CGI faces that frankly wouldn't look too far off in the old CGI TV series we used to get in the 1990s thanks to Toy Story being a huge hit. I literally almost cracked up when I first saw this for the first time. It just looked so out of place compared to what the game itself looked like. The cutscenes themselves are not much better as you realize how low detail everything is when in-engine the camera gets up close for conversations like this. It just doesn't look right at all, but hey, at least here the lighting still works as it should, putting it above the profiles.</p><p>The end result is a game that while playing looks great if a little old, but looks like ass any time you are made to watch instead... a mixed bag, but one you won't mind so much when blasting away.</p><p>6/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> While the sound certainly fairs better, it does not fair as well as it could have either. Not because of the music though. As demanded, it goes from moody in the dark, to sci-fi-ish metal as the battle heats up, to eerie techno when things are not quite right, this sound track does it all, mixing together just right to make it awesome.</p><p>Nor can you blame the sound effects for this. Your machineguns and pulse rifles blast through ammo with satisfying chunks and whirs, while lasers buzz and rockets boom brilliantly. Hell, your shotgun is satisfying as hell just for the meaty boom to rival iD's best! And the aliens that do make noise make it work too, from the thudding feet of heavy soldiers to the screech of smaller terrors to even the biomechanical sounds of later things, it all sounds absolutely brilliant.</p><p>No, the issue here is the voice acting, which will strike you as a special kind of bad in this game. It may well be they could only work with what they were given, but personally I found them so out of sync with the situation it was actually kinda funny. (Though those profiles do NOT help this.) You will get used to it by the end, letting the whole thing mesh together as you listen for clues of enemy action (you will know which ones by the end to REALLY listen for), but these voice actors have the potential to take you right out of the game while cutscenes roll.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> And this is probably the strongest of the game. You will see the game from a birds eye view, as noted in the graphics, but when you take up the controls, it's going to feel like a first person shooter. You will aim with the mouse, turning the camera while Tyler remains fixed on the screen while you fire at and doge both the fire and the aliens themselves as the combat gets hot and heavy. Rarely will you just be in the open, instead having a lot of environmental elements like doors (broken or functional) crates, debris, and glass windows, and anything else that might fit a business location (civilian or otherwise) to dance around while dealing death to your opponents, but don't count on it always lasting. A lot of this is destructible, and an alien trying to kill you just might ruin your cover (or you do the same if you choose), keeping the battlefields pretty dynamic, ESPECIALLY for when the game came out.</p><p>And while combat is certainly the focus of the game, exploration will also play a strong roll as the environments are designed to give you plenty of space to go before any given chapter is over. These are the moments the atmosphere the game is setting up really shine, letting you just take it all in and enjoy before the next monster that needs to die shows up.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYTVy36Ymin27zzjasUeUUNE18jItoga6mHGSXmPYlbCUXBpGnAEGrxnX-IzOtZ6ZkG5c8ZhrtxsYqUN11Qxug6h5xqHAdCAE_R1bJQ2OWt37AFuRT05Txy2ViAFcckd2tq6cMgZYDs7ycMv_yVPGM4i5OXS3WVyEXMRM43JYFhrmzNXCU9Jm-ZtkZjc/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h30m23s675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYTVy36Ymin27zzjasUeUUNE18jItoga6mHGSXmPYlbCUXBpGnAEGrxnX-IzOtZ6ZkG5c8ZhrtxsYqUN11Qxug6h5xqHAdCAE_R1bJQ2OWt37AFuRT05Txy2ViAFcckd2tq6cMgZYDs7ycMv_yVPGM4i5OXS3WVyEXMRM43JYFhrmzNXCU9Jm-ZtkZjc/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h30m23s675.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And you will have plenty of tools to get the job done. Along with the trope of exploding barrels conveniently planted throughout the levels of the game, you will collect 10 weapons through your adventure, ranging from your first pistol to explosive weapons and even a few sci-fi treats. And each weapon is balanced differently, making them more or less useful in different scenarios. For example your pistol is what you expect: a weaker gun, but the go-to if you want to preserve your ammunition since the only ammo count is how much is in your current cart. Meanwhile the pulse rifle puts out the damage, but absolutely chews through it's ammo, and a shotgun is devastating up close, but not great until the enemy is basically on top of you. But the game devs were certainly aware of this, for you have an upgrade system to these weapons.</p><p>When you kill enemies they will sometimes drop upgrade parts, which you will spend on up to three upgrades to any given weapon, most of the time taking the form of a technical upgrade to improve the weapon's ability, a way to enhance ammo (be it reloading with more ammo, the ability to never need to reload at all provided you have ammo, or even getting more ammo from each pickup for the weapon), and an alternate fire mode. It will be up to you to decide which ones you want to spend on, but unless you are looking to upgrade a favorite, you probably don't need to worry too much about this. By the time you reach the end of the game, you will likely have most of these, for the parts drop fairly readily.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZEwZHpf7Lc3Ie25tfO3L1Hzh55pr2220TfVt7Ih5-BdTfTrwPqLu6JGbwtv_ta9wXiI8fC8HW6KWgG_Jv52asZiMRi7TOfYwH8F9HGJl4IMRlBeDJC-DWtr9rCfWUixVyIcwjlZo04lz_mxUvDcj_mNL1NDSimJO02G30X7ZU2PejqfKWybRRo5HZGZA/s500/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h30m00s261.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZEwZHpf7Lc3Ie25tfO3L1Hzh55pr2220TfVt7Ih5-BdTfTrwPqLu6JGbwtv_ta9wXiI8fC8HW6KWgG_Jv52asZiMRi7TOfYwH8F9HGJl4IMRlBeDJC-DWtr9rCfWUixVyIcwjlZo04lz_mxUvDcj_mNL1NDSimJO02G30X7ZU2PejqfKWybRRo5HZGZA/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-10-02-14h30m00s261.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Overall, I am probably painting a very rosy picture about how this game plays for action/horror fans, and that should probably be taken as such for the most part, but that is not to say everything is good. This is the first release of Frozenbyte: a studio now known in particular for their Trine series... and their status as the new kid shows in this game. That upgrade system, for example, is absolutely necessary since while each weapon is balanced differently, it makes some weapons just about useless until you upgrade them, even though the weapons I have in mind as I say this (like the laser rifle) are found later in the game.</p><p>This later game slog is also in the levels themselves. When you start up, this game is absolutely fantastic, building itself up with new enemies and weapons almost to the end of it's short run. (I finished the game in about 10 hours.) However, once it runs out of new tricks of this nature, the devs clearly also ran out of ideas. The last few levels are an absolute slog of rinse-and-repeat rooms where you will enter, the door will close, and you will remain there till you kill every enemy that spawns in there, then go to the next room. It is boring, repetitive, and really the only challenge at this point is in the form of ammo management.</p><p>Actually the only real challenges this game will offer at this point is one of the more dreaded points in MANY games: your allies. Thankfully these characters appear indestructible so these are not so much escort mission. But they are still dumb as a box of rocks and will just stop in the middle of a small walkway, leaving you stuck to take whatever abuse is coming your way while they just watch: a frustration that gets amplified by the fact that the games does not allow you to save... at all. The only saves you get are the autosaves between each of the 11 levels that make up the game. With the average level taking 40 minutes and some taking well over an hour, suffering a death because your allies are too stupid to not kill you just gets maddening. But at least the devs again understood the weakness as you have 5 lives to complete each level. You can not get any extra lives, but your pool refills at each level. If you die, you will go back to the beginning of the level, but everything you've done remains completed, mediating the frustration some, even as it ramps up towards the end due to one enemy type in particular.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs: </b>Sadly, I can not say this game ran perfectly. There wasn't anything gamebreaking, but there are definitely issues that defy reason and will frustrate the hell out of you when you hit them (and you will).</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>What's with the jitters?</b> This engine is straight up weird. Being an old engine, it will run effectively on a potato and run very well. However, the engine will at times look like it's pressing your hardware as the map scrolls by with a stutter like you wouldn't believe even as the frames churn on. Watching any characters moving will show it as their animations are full speed, most notably Tyler himself since he's stationary on the screen, letting his frames show the best. Even more bizarre, the fix I found was to press them that much more by turning on your flashlight and making the game use it's shadow casting functionality.</li><li><b>Not all shots register:</b> This is a much bigger problem, however. The point of a SHOOTER game is to shoot the enemy, so when the enemy can ignore shots, that kinda needed to be fixed... but it wasn't. It seems to be most often when the enemy is inactive, but from time to time, you will have enemies straight up ignore the ammo you throw at them.</li><li><b>Do NOT expect a controller to work right:</b> I know I know, the store says the game has controller support, but what they call controller support and what I call controller support are two VERY different things. This game was designed for a keyboard and mouse first and foremost, and while a controller works, it was added so they could allow for multiplayer, letting players 2-4 use controllers. A single player game is borderline unplayable without using a keyboard and mouse.</li><li><b>The AI:</b> It's bad enough to be a bug. While in modern times, AI allies have gotten better, they are still looked down upon by most gamers, and with good reason. They always suck. This is an AI system that is now almost 20 years old. Expect the enemy to have trouble figuring out how to get around objects or to reason how to handle where you go... and your allies are no better. UNFORTUNATELY you can not clip or shoot through them, so this stupidity will get in your way in the few missions you have to travel with one or more. These will be the worst parts of the game and with good reason.</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> The way this game ends, it is tempting to rate this game badly overall, but that wouldn't be fair to the game. Outside of a few specific moments around one specific enemy type (one of the last it introduces) the game is a whole lot of fun, running around and gunning down hoards of alien forces interspersed with slower moments when you are exploring the ruins they left behind to find resources, complete whatever objective you have at the moment, and dealing with the remaining forces still prowling around. Its moody, atmospheric, and just a great time.</p><p>What holds it back is really just a set of cutscenes aging badly, the game running out of steam and new ideas just shy of the grand finale, and occasional just plain bad ideas (like that enemy I keep mentioning and the entire ending cutscene). So it's not so much a bad game as clearly a "first game" and one that time has not been kind to. If you like horror themed action games, you can do FAR FAR worse then to pick this one up.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>1.5 Ghz CPU processor</li><li>512 MB RAM </li><li>Any GPU that supports OpenGL and has 256 MB VRAM</li><li>1.5 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://www.gog.com/en/game/shadowgrounds" target="_blank">Gog.com</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-86655423218518521712023-09-24T23:29:00.008-04:002023-09-24T23:31:01.383-04:00Extra Life 2024 September Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/09/extra-life-2024-september-update.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnDFtrXxL6oBG8xD5vD6HpVWbXq7Pr9BtIfjBjYaF3s9o5YzoKFdUGS6Rra6FH9OJY2u5SkcLDAizm-BNv8SeO1Eydma4j8d01BuTkVBokcgCl7IG7q24IVJqZo6iqplRlsBQUF4Os_3Ley0fMclzpCOR1Y2sOvv6l9rAJL4mPXv_SVKLzRGQqIHk9T-Q/s16000/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" /></a></div><br /><p>Hi everyone and welcome! Time is flying ever so fast as we find ourselves quickly racing to the <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" target="_blank">big Extra Life Marathon in November</a>. In fact for most gamers, there is little more then a month left to bring the kids the help we can! It's getting to crunch time!</p><p>Now if you don't know what Extra Life is, allow me to explain. Gaming is a massive hobby around the world with gamers taking to their favorite past time on the regular. But what if you could do some good with that controller in your hand? No, I'm not belittling the hobby we all share: in fact we are elevating it with Extra Life. In essence, much as you would sponsor a runner in something like the world-famous Boston Marathon to help them raise money for a cause close to them, we now do the same with gaming. Extra Life is in fact doing just that by letting gamers raise donations for their local children's hospitals to help sick kids in their area. I personally have had the honor of doing this since it began some 15 years ago, and it truly is an amazing experience.</p><p>If the idea of playing games to help sick kids sounds good to you now's the time to get involved. Follow the link and sign up! The 24-hour marathon you are looking for donations to play in is on November 4th when we will globally take over the web to show the world what we can do! Of course not all of us can do it on this day... life can get in the way. I myself have family events around the same time which makes my own available time kinda iffy, so I speak as someone who uses the rain-date (the next weekend) every year and will likely do the same this year. This is not an issue since we are still all playing for the same goals: helping these sick kids. So if you need to schedule a little different, don't even give that a second though.</p><p>But still, some people are more interested in donating to help these kids rather then play themselves, and that's ok too! I mean, without you we wouldn't be able to do this. And if you wish to help us here at the Red Sector out, let me take this moment to thank who deeply and humbly.. as well as make it a little easier to find. In addition to the link in the pages list of this blog, you can also follow the link below to reach our team page. It's just a few clicks to help us help kids (basically picking which player you want to donate under since we all play for our own local hospitals).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutDown" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="161" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrRU8bcZBUTDYKR7OpxrN8TKP9MKnN5VdUyH9vnYvMx-0PIRu3yAgVYG0l1Ryf2OgFwzaZzTUvZYkWbIgq5zVIr5y4QnG8HAiEnedqkhLZFpO-oKkQoSNPtjErPUD3Tl4wJVYZc-wFOpnbVqwVJq7BzmI8IAc0ONjFM7brDi8xVegDpVAQMpd3U9eR6SU/s16000/SUPPORTME_small-320x161-9b6768fa-cc9e-442b-99c0-8144342059d1.jpg" /></a></div><p>Thank you again for all your help. We are almost there. Lets see what we can do to help these kids out.</p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-26864674280857514832023-09-24T23:03:00.007-04:002023-09-24T23:03:51.332-04:00Overlord II (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/09/overlord-ii-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg0FCvss92A83i9c59O1E3QlSq1JEWA13c6zNGs0EzMUsY-PomRzPbQutQIzF9uNVlARPbili2vdxazCbxmw_vu1noSLw6cF3Sgyj88vpWETA_-UC6I3jT08EP3u5R6gnlDA_iGy_b9B3-M5934vMXTodcm2zbjpSlIFS5xLMTHWcvmeWXC7KsB_FrsdI/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h47m30s596.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>When the dice pulled this game in, there wasn't a question in my mind. After all, I was "technically" in the middle of the series, and I honestly enjoyed the hell out of the first one, so why not? Well, the game was going to show me why not before long. Come on in.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Like father, like son could not be a truer phrase then in this game. As the son of the Overlord in the <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2018/11/overlord-raising-hell-pc-review.html" target="_blank">original game</a>, you are destined for great and terrible things. But as the game starts, you are a child in a small out of the way village, scurried away to be raised in secrecy when your father literally disappeared in the events of the last title. Life's not been kind to you. The others in the village can sense there is something "off" about you and they treat you accordingly. It doesn't help you that you turned out to be talented with magic, and, also like your father, have a penchant for at the very least mischief.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv-xIyFektdGVbCQlXX3Rs71L48gXltm34Js7zFcsLAewahmXIyKafmM76rT9vl2XnpPgPYAJsr4sXoetsz2lgD_6Xb7VgyT3Uw18bnDITEq7eNFC8YUC9a7LSkKIWak4PiJaq6FaTEGDjaFjeD-TCHHavN5Jh4TtHi8BVzB9i-W-bxtqnepn8dKIfLVs/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h48m11s009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv-xIyFektdGVbCQlXX3Rs71L48gXltm34Js7zFcsLAewahmXIyKafmM76rT9vl2XnpPgPYAJsr4sXoetsz2lgD_6Xb7VgyT3Uw18bnDITEq7eNFC8YUC9a7LSkKIWak4PiJaq6FaTEGDjaFjeD-TCHHavN5Jh4TtHi8BVzB9i-W-bxtqnepn8dKIfLVs/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h48m11s009.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But one day, your life would change for the worse. Without your father to lead the forces of evil, they retreated from the world and left a power vacuum... and nature abhors such things. So it wasn't long before a new power began to spread it's influence. Known as the Glorious Empire, it reached your village demanding it's rules be met... including the one about magic being illegal and all magical creatures (or people) to be surrendered to them for cleansing. Your village tossed you to the wolves.</p><p>But you thankfully did not have to escape from the empire's armies alone. Your father's minions found you and there was no better time to rush to your aid, helping you escape the town, into the forest, and ultimately to be raised by them in the netherrealm. You grew up big and strong and now, it's time to get your revenge and take your father's place as the TRUE master of the lands.</p><p>There are more details and side stories to get involved with to be sure, but how much I can not be sure. I had taken the town that had thrown me to the wolves and was now moving in on the elves territory when both the time limit I give a game to prove itself worth continuing (8 hours) and a bug that set me back at least an hour, probably more, hit, ending my game.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJk9RnT2Bkmm-5eHLZmPrm2qF1NcnXc6pCW2fHxpcocvusD7eLRWm1a9apjqI617lbGFqow8kVNpGLWO6L48YXvmJFcDcETuhV13ghD13gtVPYUmOXm3ulDygZyT1udEq7aIq54dxrZdLf6b_tU46SH4DF2YrbmfVfA25kxu_NlxC9JARxcg9z_JHZR24/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h48m20s350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJk9RnT2Bkmm-5eHLZmPrm2qF1NcnXc6pCW2fHxpcocvusD7eLRWm1a9apjqI617lbGFqow8kVNpGLWO6L48YXvmJFcDcETuhV13ghD13gtVPYUmOXm3ulDygZyT1udEq7aIq54dxrZdLf6b_tU46SH4DF2YrbmfVfA25kxu_NlxC9JARxcg9z_JHZR24/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h48m20s350.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Still I can't say much against the writing I saw, though. This game is genuinely funny, taking a dark idea and playing it up for laughs effectively. From the mumblings of your minions to the instructions of Gnarl, to the "California hippie to the extreme" elves, to even potential mistresses the game will put in your path, everyone seems pretty much there to put a smile on your face during their cutscenes. But sadly the overall picture seems to have little rhyme or reason as to what is going on. You may have a reason to take over your home village, but after that, it's more like you are on the warpath because you can be more then you have an actual reason. In short it's funny, but it feels like the overall story is basically there as an excuse instead of something thought out... at least as far as I got.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Like it's predecessor, this game is going to suprise you in the best way graphically. Designed for the Xbox 360 and hardware of that era, it scales exceedingly well, and while it doesn't look like a modern AAA game, it looks fantastic. The world is vibrant and colorful, reflecting where you are at any given time, be it your tower, the winter village, or jungles, forests, caves, and really several other places. Between the artfully built world and exceptionally well done (especially for the time) lighting and smoke effects that just makes the whole world pop.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5eL9rvSbETCWk2b24MndD1_wLXc0wKEddJhC0lEnGnmTxBp8Ec1heWVOMwCrbP5j8Rzy6pcVVfNwr4MBeVocoYM9xip4J9z9wq39Q-LHHlAlc_mpC5qu6EktD4ADHRLqKzEXFesj49GQn7HZwsBzUAxi6K6D092b_VY7ujMVsgmCmPTxhJCJ0oOhw3WM/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h49m04s360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5eL9rvSbETCWk2b24MndD1_wLXc0wKEddJhC0lEnGnmTxBp8Ec1heWVOMwCrbP5j8Rzy6pcVVfNwr4MBeVocoYM9xip4J9z9wq39Q-LHHlAlc_mpC5qu6EktD4ADHRLqKzEXFesj49GQn7HZwsBzUAxi6K6D092b_VY7ujMVsgmCmPTxhJCJ0oOhw3WM/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h49m04s360.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But this does come with a counterbalance. Yes, the characters that make up the world are also exceptionally well detailed, but human and human-like faces tend to show their age much more poorly. Rather then looking nearly as correct as a modern game would, they frankly look like poorly maintained muppets, deep and well on their side of the uncanny valley. And anytime they are up close, they are gonna look terrible. You, of course, look fine, but that's because you don't so much have a face as have a dark space with glowing yellow eyes peering out of them.</p><p>In addition while not immune, the mistresses in the game seem to be hit a bit lighter with this ugly stick. And everything not human tends to walk with the feel of the world. It doesn't look quite real, but it looks simply amazing, from the man-eating plants to the killer spiders, to even the yeti and your minions (who are incredibly expressive... in fact some would call them adorable... I'm not sure I would, but I can't argue against how amusing it is when your mistress decides to dress them up like aristocrats and high-end servants in the tower). </p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Like the graphics, the music in this game held up surprisingly well. If anything this might blend in more with how modern games sound. True, you likely won't remember much of it after you turn off the game, but while playing it fits it's roll brilliantly and you will not be upset with anything you hear. This is also true of the sound effects, which are a fairly standard affair.</p><p>No what stands out here is like many games, the voice acting. Your character will never say a word, but Gnarl says more then enough to make up for it, truly carrying the game in the audio department. Not that this is a surprise for fans of the franchise. He did an amazing job in the first game, too. And when it's not him, it's the minions themselves, who's character just oozes through everything in this game.</p><p>8/10</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> Sadly, this is where the game falls apart. Much like the previous game, this is a 3rd person game where the core mechanics involve leading your minion hoards into battle against whatever dares stand in your way. Usually this will involve literally flipping the right stick around to move the group you have selected at the moment where you need them to be, which works almost as well as it did in the last game. I will say almost because it seems like in the time between, someone thought it would be a good idea to mesh the camera and minion controls. Where before holding a trigger button would decide if you were manuvering your view or your minions, now the moment you push the stick forward enough and rather then angle the camera accordingly, you are suddenly moving the minions. It can make for some akward control moments, which was my first hint that this game was going to get rough.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgODeNct8CVi4RECprk1agaDPwQ6xCi3tv2L_8o20mDQycr_RN9j82aY2y2w3ioJbX_sWyuiAmD4uwSK7yN6pC-2NA-fYywcpsV8lPMpwRgknBKVu1trFqqahOyou0jVTDhkvHekcg2n0ngWf4UuPK_NdZ3JuwCILi_DQcgy4xZiQI7iL81qb_pqNL5_sU/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h50m13s455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgODeNct8CVi4RECprk1agaDPwQ6xCi3tv2L_8o20mDQycr_RN9j82aY2y2w3ioJbX_sWyuiAmD4uwSK7yN6pC-2NA-fYywcpsV8lPMpwRgknBKVu1trFqqahOyou0jVTDhkvHekcg2n0ngWf4UuPK_NdZ3JuwCILi_DQcgy4xZiQI7iL81qb_pqNL5_sU/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-24-22h50m13s455.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>In addition to combat, you are going be using these little guys for mechanics puzzles (turning the right cranks or pushing the right buttons or even lighting things on fire once they are placed properly), which usually works very well. Although here, there are some design issues from time to time. Nothing that will stop you in your tracks, but sometimes room for error is EXCEEDINGLY small, so if you are already fustrated at this point, you are not going to be any happier at that moment.</p><p>And yes, you will get there, because this game has a "that moment" in which everything turns from overall fun to absolute garbage. If you want to read about it, follow the spoilers.</p><blockquote><p><i>When you take over the first town, it's not long before you need a ship to continue your conquests, and when you get one, the game gets.. awkward. You gain control by having 10 of your minions board it... even though unlike everything else, there is nothing to target until you happen to do so by chance. Once you've done that, you take the helm and off you go: one trigger to move forward and one to move backwards. It feels cumbersome, but in a way suiting to a ship stuck in the waves. The issue starts when you have to fight another more war-built ship in this.</i></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><i>Now you will find yourself in a life-or-death battle with an elven ship that has a ram on it. Your goal is to dodge it's shots and have your red minions throw fireballs at it, burning it's sails. This works well enough as well, but once you've "slowed them down" they will run, and this is where the game hit the wall. That ship is fast, and you now have to chase it down as it flies around the island at top speed.... well, when you are close enough to it. And you can catch up... but when you do, be ready for mermaids to slow you down by the time you do, only letting you get a few shots in. Rince and repeat... many many many times. The redundancy is infuriating.</i></p></blockquote><p>Unfortunately things do not get better from here. It wasn't long after this that the game took away all the minions but rebalanced everything badly and I began running into the real bugs I will discuss below that finished the game for me, rendering it a broken mess with what was for me, game ending bugs.</p><p>0/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> Sadly, this game was far from bug-free. In fact a game-ending bug hit just as the game reached the 8 hours I demand before I deem it trash. Sometimes fate speaks in these things.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Panda puzzle broke: </b>This probably sounds weird, but early in the game, (as you are collecting your third minion type, but have yet to bring their nest home), you will meet pandas as an enemy type. These behemoths will generally leave you alone... as long as you don't cut down their bamboo. This in itself is fine, and in fact you are given a puzzle where you are supposed to lead one of these beasts around a circle to free up the path to those minions and use them for the first time. The problem is I cut the bamboo and ran... only to be ignored... at least so it seemed. Since it was cut, I couldn't try again, and ultimately had to punch the thing in the nose to realize it was stuck and couldn't move. Since I couldnt touch it without getting too close and I would lose by design in this match, this proved quite the issue... especially as this puzzle was necessary t progress the game. Ultimately I did get him to nudge free eventually and chase as necessary, but not before I was half-dead from attempts. And speaking of...</li><li><b>Clipping can kill you: </b>This is not a joke. This same panda took me out for my second death in the game... because his swat knocked me over and he landed on me, clipping me INTO HIS BODY. The game refused to let me move as I was forced to just take the damage and die... all because the game's controls ceased to do anything outside of spin the camera and try to wiggle. This is not the only time this happened: there were other places where that wiggle was all that kept the game from having to be reloaded (and I think one place where it was unavoidable). Your worst enemy in this game is not the enemies or even the terrible game design at times... it's the geometry.</li><li><b>The map just disappeared: </b>THIS was the game ending bug for me. In the same mission to collect the these new minions, it was discovered the Glorious Empire had captured it, so it's up to you to steal it back. This an exceedingly long mission involving possessing one of your new minion types and leading the others through an infiltration of the fortress. Unfortunately along the way, the game just forgot a large portion of the map, rendering it and anything in it (including your possessed minion and his crew) invisible and the area unnavigable. I had to reload, only to find the entire section (which tool well over an hour) would need to be redone. This is when I walked away from this game.</li></ul><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Overall:</b> I REALLY wanted to love this one. After all, the original Overlord was a fun game that overcame the limits of first person army management magnificently. Had this been more of the same, it would have been another great outing. Unfortunately, the attempts to expand on it have had the reverse effect with many of the new additions proving more annoying then fun. Add to this some very severe bugs that literally killed the game and it was all downhill from that fun little introduction as the "witch boy." Slow at first... and then like jumping off a cliff.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Score:</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OJ0oadxr05k/UN-GFas4MKI/AAAAAAAAATc/SlLnnfky0hE/s144/score%25200.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OJ0oadxr05k/UN-GFas4MKI/AAAAAAAAATc/SlLnnfky0hE/s144/score%25200.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">0/10<br /></div><p><br /><b>System Requirements:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Pentium 4 3.0Ghz/Athlon 64bit 3000+</li><li>1 GB RAM<br /></li><li>NVIDIA Geforce 6800/ATi X1600 (256 MB VRAM minimum)</li><li>Windows XP SP2<br /></li><li>5 GB hard drive space</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 5 5600G<b> </b>running at 3.9 Ghz</li><li>16 GB RAM</li><li>Windows 11</li><li><a href="https://www.pdp.com/en/shop/controller/pdp-dx-wired-controller-red" target="_blank">PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)</a></li></ul><p><b>Source: <a href="https://www.gog.com/en/game/overlord_ii" target="_blank">gog.com</a></b></p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-54374067681898923102023-09-15T22:17:00.003-04:002023-09-15T22:17:32.631-04:00Severed Steel (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/09/severed-steel-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_9-oA9zJ3ez1S9slbCx0hoF5QSel4lOnrqO_IJXoOq0CZyi6wTOHIOpxw9uPCA66CCO_Ig8wxN9fRTnYUNUhdcvc2DtZRpjOWMhZfd1icsXISeSF-gCCB3vIYQzyxAP3AmcK6Em27DgLeIcyLeeYmxAkpbd_-oMCtvscbGZZWvDf0U6urr6zaOoxqwA/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h32m36s802.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>This is not a game I would have normally picked up, and if Epic wasn't giving it away I probably would never have played it. It just never showed me a hint of a direction or reason that would draw me in. But as a free game to deviate a bit? I've followed that path before and even <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/07/slime-rancher-pc-review.html">found some fun on the way</a>. This time though? Well I can't deny quality when I see it, but this one just isn't for me.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Honestly I really can't tell you much about the story because there really isn't much to talk about. You play a young woman who wakes up in the trash (literally your first mission is to escape the trash compactor) missing your forearm. Pissed off you start climbing... it could be for revenge, it could be to escape, I honestly don't know, and while the game does have story beats in the form of short cutscenes between each chapter, they don't really explain anything so much as set a tone.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqtAmeD2Ynb_DN8QbdeJIdFVJvdrnil59Q63Gqg70TSSNqSvPaJ40ZgJicZexb0KONjy-qTq2Ra4J4HFOFth8lS287DjmpkTYklQujDXikeFlbNG0cUQ8zotE0SZoftrw1mmdItZeYd_ZQM3hy9odWPtQhn1MQeIc4fuCAhvX1wQAt9Pg1N_Fj9SrfKA/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h34m24s002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqtAmeD2Ynb_DN8QbdeJIdFVJvdrnil59Q63Gqg70TSSNqSvPaJ40ZgJicZexb0KONjy-qTq2Ra4J4HFOFth8lS287DjmpkTYklQujDXikeFlbNG0cUQ8zotE0SZoftrw1mmdItZeYd_ZQM3hy9odWPtQhn1MQeIc4fuCAhvX1wQAt9Pg1N_Fj9SrfKA/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h34m24s002.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And it's not like you can count on the in-game scenes to tell you much more. The areas you travel through at first seem to make a logical sense going through some sort of complex, but this sense is shattered around the half-way point when you start going to random cities, complexes, houses, and euclydian spaces that are more made to fit the gameplay then tell anything. If you can get anything out of the story, then you did far better then I with it.</p><p>5/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> You will play this game from a first person point of view as you run, dive, and perform parkour through a variety of environments, and I have to say it all looks absolutely gorgeous. The whole game takes glossy almost minimal-futuristic look to itself, and absolutely owns it. But the areas it takes place in, however, are far from as consistent. As noted during the story part, the areas you are in really carry no single tone outside this art-style, making it more of a collection of levels instead of a consistent world like most games.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbrmo5KBCWWJxP9RsbVyk3td1KbVioSEagB4bGvbZ4xiPUUlInsHSX5VAV-FnKiRBVp3usGAxSsliAOsg9T8q3hevw6KHm3z54-fgvoPEGkzKRULEtMuzqNPVsU7iaCYohGeCNsTNzqr4MtbdoShZuI_r-XZy_CqIIVcll3I8NQiwM4GS_APxtElUNQg/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h34m09s364.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbrmo5KBCWWJxP9RsbVyk3td1KbVioSEagB4bGvbZ4xiPUUlInsHSX5VAV-FnKiRBVp3usGAxSsliAOsg9T8q3hevw6KHm3z54-fgvoPEGkzKRULEtMuzqNPVsU7iaCYohGeCNsTNzqr4MtbdoShZuI_r-XZy_CqIIVcll3I8NQiwM4GS_APxtElUNQg/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h34m09s364.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But for as good as the game looks, this is also the odd game where I have to take issue with the user interface for reasons you would not expect. It's clean and very minimalistic like the rest of the game, even using the cursor to keep some of the more important details front and center very effectively. But if you look to the bottom of the screen, you see the biggest issue right away: the health meter.</p><p>This meter is a small red clover in the lower right corner of the screen. It keeps out of the way, but with how much "darkness with neon ambiance" the game uses, it's also incredibly easy to lose track of... and for how little damage you can take, this can be a huge issue. Later an ammo count will have the same issue on the lower left, too.</p><p>Overall though, this game looks gorgeous, even if some functionality suffers for it.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> This is one place I have sing the praises of the Severed Steel: it sounds even better then it looks. The cacophony of battle when things get heavy is truly blood pumping and compliments the action with all the intensity you could ask for. For all the combat junkies looking for fast like a Doom game, you are in for a treat.</p><p>And then we can get to the music, which is absolutely perfect. You will be listening to a set of techno tracks that just flow beautifully, complimenting the battle in so exquisitely that I'm hard pressed to think of a better mashup for a game. I have a feeling more then a few people bought the soundtrack DLC to add to their libraries and frankly wouldn't be surprised if a rave DJ used some of it for a mix or two. It's solid as hell.</p><p>I can't speak for the voices though. Out side of "SHE'S HERE!" and some death yells, there really isn't much here at all. Sounds right, but the game doesn't really need much in the way of voices to work.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> Sadly this is where the game failed for me, but this might well be a me thing in this case. As noted, this is very fast First Person Shooter where you will go through each level to complete defined goals told to you in huge white letters across the screen. And fast is the word, as your movement, despite being indoors, is based on parkour action instead of the standard you might expect for a shooter.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirgnxk7IxjABn93Erd0mF0oAhdYfXr5_IRSwMNMVAM9magAg_IpIdlnFEryZrue3UK7fAvD0o8B7UyxmaKFmBPI-wApJY9VMtGTuiRr4pYYshCg3x_JjqgaqIoWFOlAnbj8PI-YUupjF_S_bl6SFkJXqVk3PuAK6Qwn0r7OnzrpcvAmDi8gHRBL9trRTM/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h32m47s555.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirgnxk7IxjABn93Erd0mF0oAhdYfXr5_IRSwMNMVAM9magAg_IpIdlnFEryZrue3UK7fAvD0o8B7UyxmaKFmBPI-wApJY9VMtGTuiRr4pYYshCg3x_JjqgaqIoWFOlAnbj8PI-YUupjF_S_bl6SFkJXqVk3PuAK6Qwn0r7OnzrpcvAmDi8gHRBL9trRTM/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h32m47s555.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>In fact, the first few levels have no enemies at all. They exist to show you how to slide, launch, double-jump, and run along walls as you will constantly once the game really begins. If this kind of motion sounds good to you, you are gonna love this game since it will never let you sit still. Further pushing this motion is your health: doing parkour protects you from damage while just a standard run or walk leaves you open to take the little damage it will take to end your run. Suffice it to say, this will encourage you to always keep moving. But this is where I personally had an issue with the game. I tend to want to play more tactically and found myself not nearly as in control of the situation as I wanted to be diving at break neck speed at all times without being able to even take a look around to see what parts of the environment I might use in the fight. Basically it just taught me I should avoid games like Mirror's Edge since that appears to be the whole point of it.</p><p>But that doesn't mean it doesn't do cool things with it, or make you adapt as you play. The levels are all very destructible, so depending on your weapon or the enemies in the room, you can expect to make Swiss cheese out of everything before you are done most of the time, changing how you need to get around in the think of the battle.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib35ddQvGU1ETGWRVJpdhfDjuLmsb1H7rB-ujwkbkC2uiJQLIvNvtGOFDBRQmHY4rBVutciwlO4jSbXNjgKFtl_U5qKorv7FbquopiLq0U-p5rshk5ltH3d5IqqeddhIXBG8IIgM0YM196Ef1mXjKryIQetBeHmtUTXVMMaH0QY_FEkGYWzjsOPyqO1W4/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h34m57s441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib35ddQvGU1ETGWRVJpdhfDjuLmsb1H7rB-ujwkbkC2uiJQLIvNvtGOFDBRQmHY4rBVutciwlO4jSbXNjgKFtl_U5qKorv7FbquopiLq0U-p5rshk5ltH3d5IqqeddhIXBG8IIgM0YM196Ef1mXjKryIQetBeHmtUTXVMMaH0QY_FEkGYWzjsOPyqO1W4/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-13-22h34m57s441.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>All in all combat is fast and furious and if the idea of parkour maneuvers during insane gunfights sounds good to you, then you are defiantly in the right place. That is exactly what this game is... no more and no less.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> Honestly I can't say much bad about how this game ran. Admittedly I had to fiddle with the graphic settings a little for the AMD software to be able to track framerates, but other then that, it ran like an absolute dream.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> While this is clearly not a game for me, I can not deny the overall quality of the game. And while the UI could have used a little more polish, it clearly does a lot right. It's fast, furious, liquid smooth, and if you are a fan of the style of action it offers, you will have a great time with it. So if you are a fan of games like Mirror's Edge, but wanted a lot more gunplay while you dodge and dive around, you probably want to give this game a shot!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Dual Core processor</li><li>8 GB RAM </li><li>NVidia GTX 750</li><li>4 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 10</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/severed-steel" target="_blank">EpicGames</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-8907084900735285962023-09-10T23:10:00.004-04:002023-09-10T23:10:43.884-04:00The Blackwell Deception (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-blackwell-deception-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="128" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK8xIe6VMLrElSS_T_r_WcKd_yyszJ7K-TKlqIvwb9B0b5U6NoKObZhppjxyyU8VsrksaPikZRKiY6_KTk_KSuB3vvt7VWWPe8FyhyXkDUKvlx1304yyjMSUfQ037FZbCXHkUGyOvLs6LURpI6tWqEZD3vUCqNQ5rtZL4AV785CvNLREAHn8AkLjrpoYg/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h15m27s170.jpg" /></a></div><p>And now the initial set is complete. A long ways ago, I bought this as part of a 4-game pack with the 3 preceding titles and as of now, I have finished the pack off. So how was this last entry? Honestly pretty good, if not the best it had to offer. Still come on in and lets talk.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> If you haven't played the previous games in the series, then you may just want to stop right here. Simply put The Blackwell Deception is the 4th game in a series that has built on itself over the years, and it simply doesn't waste any time explaining anything to the player about what happened before. You are simply thrown into the mix with very little in the way of explanation. That said, if you insist on starting here, let me introduce Rosangela Blackwell (Rosa for short): a young lady who lives in New York. She would be considered a pretty normal person if not for the fact that she is haunted by a ghost from the 1920s named Joey Mallone. However, this haunting is not without cause, for her family is a bloodline where Joey is forever attached to one chosen member who's granted the gift of seeing and talking to ghosts in general and the new life's work of helping them move on past this world and into the next (wanted or not). Her aunt had been the last one to have him along in her life... now it's her turn.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMI3rl_qMESbH9Yw0cdckMj7BXKLhCDfgjEw-eRzTthfF3444W7xD0n4te7EFUH8DvZ2KhEORf0XdWzgNG6xli0Qx23zVP9Tz_v645q7eDP2j-yh9z8LpOSkpe3lpcsnNamcYCYz_OdtOaJvM-KL5O8Ulw0WL8Tp-OLTaQf0b_zBE4itRnnGJ5NPBkxlc/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h16m10s909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMI3rl_qMESbH9Yw0cdckMj7BXKLhCDfgjEw-eRzTthfF3444W7xD0n4te7EFUH8DvZ2KhEORf0XdWzgNG6xli0Qx23zVP9Tz_v645q7eDP2j-yh9z8LpOSkpe3lpcsnNamcYCYz_OdtOaJvM-KL5O8Ulw0WL8Tp-OLTaQf0b_zBE4itRnnGJ5NPBkxlc/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h16m10s909.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>When we join our dynamic duo, they have been asked to look into a yacht that no matter how securely the owner hooks it in place, every night it is found floating in the bay and he has pay to have it towed to the shore. He is also a skeptic to put it mildly, but at this point he'll try anything. It doesn't take long for them to find out this is a haunted ship where the ghost is still trying to make a getaway after a bank heist... one quick adventure and completely destroyed yacht later, the two are back home trying to relax for the night when Rosa's old co-worker Jeremy calls her up. He may not know anything about Rosa's current career in ghost exorcism, but they used to write together at a small local newspaper, and he needs help with an article he's writing: basically he's too sick to go finish meeting with people and the window to do it will close before he feels better.</p><p>So they go to meet Jeremy only for Rosa to have one of the biggest shocks yet in her life: he's dead, and still convinced he's working on the case that likely killed him. It's now up to Rosa and Joey to finish his work, help him realize his part is over of both the story and life, and see that whatever in the case lead to his death won't lead to anyone else's. This base point will lead you on a short but packed adventure where you will guide Rosa down a whirlwind of events complete with several victims and hints of things much bigger then perhaps life as we know it would accept being involved. It is a very solid chapter in Rosa's life, but clearly not the final one (and in fact there is one last game after this one as I write this). Still it ties most of the strings well and feels complete. Even it's stinger really doesn't suggest much in where the last chapter will go, so it does a great job of not feeling like a "to be continued" ending even as there is clearly more to do before the series is over. Very nice job!</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Honestly I found the look of this game to be a bit of a mixed bag. The world you will play in looks about as good as it ever has. Keeping to it's roots, Deception is a game that will display itself with sprites and background at a low resolution like you might expect from older MS-DOS based games... well... kinda. You see in this case, the game does not seem so dedicated to the illusion, dropping it completely for text fonts and some of the screens (like for example the cellphone screen where you pick what place you want to go to). For the most part though where the illusion is used, it's used solidly, so don't expect to get pulled out of the illusion too much.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVpC4Jr5FZeaDCLGlzCs4G7glTYFDPsqSajrDGQ_T6FdVdZB7OhQQv4mQnf6slWRoXMmAsmetgzjrZvXJmshYH0AU1SE5GdrRx1F4Y_YJBEmaY2W5Wm7gdStTnR9zU8dsEZ2dy7ROcVPYuCsu1uXsgAj8n4MpxtEBnVqQy-xvaoiTJfn-wLI59nGNNRXI/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h16m40s787.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVpC4Jr5FZeaDCLGlzCs4G7glTYFDPsqSajrDGQ_T6FdVdZB7OhQQv4mQnf6slWRoXMmAsmetgzjrZvXJmshYH0AU1SE5GdrRx1F4Y_YJBEmaY2W5Wm7gdStTnR9zU8dsEZ2dy7ROcVPYuCsu1uXsgAj8n4MpxtEBnVqQy-xvaoiTJfn-wLI59nGNNRXI/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h16m40s787.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>What it does in this resolution is also mixed, but sadly not as well. The backgrounds are exceptional with every location in the game looking great. In fact there are areas in this game that look like they could have not just been a photograph, but done over fully recorded footage of the world. It is simply stunning. But on the other hand, the sprite work just doesn't look as good as the older games. It could just be a style choice, but it feels too simple compared to the world those sprites populate and more so then previous games.</p><p>Still, the sprites work well enough that you can get used to them. What stands, But the profile pictures used in every conversation are absolutely brilliant, much like the world. They are not photorealistic by any means, choosing instead to appear like a set of painted illustrations, each one designed to show off the expressions of the characters perfectly and complimenting the voice work we will talk about in the next section better then they have a right to.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkUpoq0alUGSILrITWT-E0vtopWKwAS-TOIYxvChITN7OwWNc7jBNwwWfyKMP2Guo85m4XAw2sEcj4iFevBWLMJ6238xpeqPz5wj417mQu3Dwi-LqKXXDHi23uzSUiBjoKM6WfidazPX0KhnbcVYKQN0b68NCY3RlhCEwQRdGIWdApYCOQUdvTHhVCZhs/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h17m26s120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkUpoq0alUGSILrITWT-E0vtopWKwAS-TOIYxvChITN7OwWNc7jBNwwWfyKMP2Guo85m4XAw2sEcj4iFevBWLMJ6238xpeqPz5wj417mQu3Dwi-LqKXXDHi23uzSUiBjoKM6WfidazPX0KhnbcVYKQN0b68NCY3RlhCEwQRdGIWdApYCOQUdvTHhVCZhs/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h17m26s120.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Overall, I can't say the game looks as good as previous titles in the series, but it still looks good enough, and even great in some of it's details. But the mix is a bit less even then I would expect.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> To get the weaker point out of the way first, don't expect a lot out of the sound effects that make up your world. Frankly there just isn't a lot... basically you can expect clicks when working with Rosa's phone, and some of the objects you interact with jostling around or making noises when you turn them on... and they sound right, don't get me wrong. but a lot of the time, these sounds just don't exist.</p><p>Voices, on the other hand, dominate this adventure, and these fair infinitely better. In fact these are probably the highlight for your ears as every voice actor brings their A game... and there are a lot of them, especially for the length of time you will be playing! But if I had to pick a single actor who dominates the game, it would be Joey Mallone's. This guy has just oozed personality from the beginning of the franchise and no one is even slowing him down. Sarcasm, wit, and just plain style, it's all here and you will be eager to hear every word that comes out of his mouth. A top-line act to flow over the absolute prime voice-acting the entire cast offered.</p><p>As of for music, that is a bit more standard, taking to jazz and piano, matching the mood expertly, but rarely sticking out as anything you will remember for even a few minutes after the game session is over. But still, I guess that makes sense since even the best here would fall behind the infinitely more memorable voicework for this game.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> If you have played either of the last two games in the series, you already have an damn near exact idea of what to expect here. If you've played even the first in the set, you have a good one. If not, Blackwell Deception is a point and click game with a bit of a twist: you will spend the time controlling the dynamic duo of the medium Rosa and the ghost Joey, focusing on each one for specific skills they have (or inventory Rosa has) to overcome obstacles in your investigations to save several souls and, in the process, uncover why they are dead, who did it, and how to stop them from killing again. Being a ghost, Joey can simply get into places a human can not or get close to things without being notices, giving him a unique ability to observe things for Rosa. Add to this some ghostly talents like messing up electronic signals, blowing lighter objects around, or even lowering temperatures the same way and he has some nice tricks up his sleave to help these investigations. However, Rosa has to carry her own weight in the process since outside these tricks, Joey is literally incapable of interacting with the physical world at all. (And for that record, he is also incapable of interacting with living people).</p><p>But moving between them has gotten easier this time around. Previously the only way to select between the two was highlight the character's initial in the drop-down hud, and you still can. But in addition, there is now a hot key to swap quickly and you can always tell who you are controlling by the color of your cursor (gold for Rosa and Purple for Joey).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdew6ZRZDihH7zT2MVCZ58-41j7Z9jvzNXiQWcnMTHtdndf-yRjGl_lxGrwt12RMbWzDz-6pYFu-iCkdxF-mYPCeKc9mT1iuEUue09HYIcouQDlOAU9HXxeFgY-LMjFPwT4VWGhe-NDHFV8WcD4ab_1p9q3OlpEOfEROTWg2TKI-C3wQByhW9OgkerGWE/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h15m38s654.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdew6ZRZDihH7zT2MVCZ58-41j7Z9jvzNXiQWcnMTHtdndf-yRjGl_lxGrwt12RMbWzDz-6pYFu-iCkdxF-mYPCeKc9mT1iuEUue09HYIcouQDlOAU9HXxeFgY-LMjFPwT4VWGhe-NDHFV8WcD4ab_1p9q3OlpEOfEROTWg2TKI-C3wQByhW9OgkerGWE/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-12h15m38s654.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>You will use these skills to complete the usual object based puzzles which populate your adventure, and these are actually very solid. But as always, its the conversation puzzles that make this series stand out. They play out according to what you have reviewed in the world as well as a notes system. This lets you not only have a list of standard things you can ask everyone about but on your own you can compare them to each other can create links, new notes, or new conversation options, forcing the player to review things with Rosa to figure out what is going on. In addition, the game has a mini-internet feature which will require you to occasional look things up on Rosa's phone to further expand what you find.</p><p>The combined result is very satisfyingly gameplay, although not perfect. There are times where you may want a guide since some of the clues can be difficult to find or even know you have to find. I found this out in the intro on the boat with a puzzle that not only required you to find something hiddnen behind a puzzle, but to know you have to look at it a second time. Personally I had the misfortune of not only getting stuck here, but noticing something was missing when a clue disappeared on the notes list, suggesting the game broke to me. It did not and I was able to with a reload see the disappearance was unrelated AND expected, but things like that can make you wonder. I wouldn't recommend living by a guide while playing, but maybe have a source of hints nearby if you can. It will just smooth out the experience for a few very specific moments early in the game.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> I'm beginning to sound like a broken record with this game franchise, but they just keep hitting this same point function-wise. The game runs great from start to finish. However, just like <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-blackwell-legacy-pc-review.html" target="">everything</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/03/blackwell-unbound-pc-review.html">before</a> <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/07/blackwell-convergence-pc-review.html">it</a>, when the game is over, it's over. The credits roll and the game would rather just dump you into the desktop instead of return you to the main menu. But aside from that, everything worked flawlessly.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>Score:</b> Compared to previous games in the franchise, this is an example of "one step forward and two steps back." You have a storyline that just keeps getting better and better with each entry. You have voice acting that is absolutely amazing. And even now it's still smoothing out how you control the game for even smoother play. But the actual puzzles you will have to figure out can sometimes go back into pixel hunting a little, something I thought we had basically left behind after Convergence. I would argue it's a pretty good title, and worthy of the series. I just wish the upwards trajectory kept screaming at the same pace... I mean it's still going up overall, but it seems like it's not the same leaps and bounds the last chapter brought with it.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>1.8 Ghz processor</li><li>512 MB RAM </li><li>Any GPU that supports Direct X 9.0c</li><li>1 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 7</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://www.gog.com/en/game/blackwell_bundle" target="_blank">gog.com</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-31337998058191859182023-09-06T23:26:00.001-04:002023-09-06T23:26:09.169-04:00Ys SEVEN (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/09/ys-seven-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2yuUeyBGfh6JnEwwjVYaYBrv95ighDdanOtjph14dw3vh2QIY2-xpk5FJbBcR5oxXOp7QpQD3fmkSvOxDDUW-o_p1RFNyQgb1_5CVb5Ee-FiKS34DLkDJ4EGwFNRobqVEgWEohZx0PNV2ZOx3fEU-6aS0H1r51UOEH0gXC0Fl0X_JkVIPaiyp1TUXzw/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h05m19s712.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And here we are as we continue to play through Adol's adventures. What started as a flawed classic has become a long and storied franchise of fun and exciting games and me eager to see each as they come up in the backlog. And this is where this game differs: when I finished t<a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/06/ys-vi-ark-of-napishtim-pc-review.html">he last one</a>, I had run out of backlog entries, making this the first title I went out of my way to pick up to continue. Suffice it to say, I made no mistake doing this.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Welcome to Altago: the newest destination of one Adol Christian. He and Dogi have just landed in port and it's time to check out the area... but of course this is Adol, we are talking about. He doesn't find adventure, it finds him, and his time in this land proves no different, starting with a run in with the Dragon Knights: a legendary army that has defended this land for as long as it has stood and recently took part in the recently ended war with the Romun empire. In this particular situation, one of their not-so-honorable captains was giving a flower girl and her sister trouble, and Adol just can't let that slide. Suffice it to say, things don't end well and before their first day in town is over, our duo is in jail.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqyLK2kEC4wyL44KPvNWmJlQM5BxZQ1VvLzbizSsToN8-0qrtG4Bs6E7kImlPV3j0OLYRbVLB2K0fiZvXyMjXVSNXcwJonpfupoYMwvD-9NzVKDsiZ6xCkm3Ma0XzCARKxcvhNpYAs5Z0Lg--bstKEfKn4xTcd0XAVgM_uAY_DLhsJpCYzb4Y6QupvtqI/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h09m13s428.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqyLK2kEC4wyL44KPvNWmJlQM5BxZQ1VvLzbizSsToN8-0qrtG4Bs6E7kImlPV3j0OLYRbVLB2K0fiZvXyMjXVSNXcwJonpfupoYMwvD-9NzVKDsiZ6xCkm3Ma0XzCARKxcvhNpYAs5Z0Lg--bstKEfKn4xTcd0XAVgM_uAY_DLhsJpCYzb4Y6QupvtqI/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h09m13s428.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Fortunately Adol's reputation travelled well before him, for the King knew of him through a mutual friend. And freshly pardoned they were ushered into the throne room. Here, the real story begins, for he informs the duo of recent Earthquakes that have been going on with little to no explanation. But there may be a clue in the form of a shrine that one of the quakes uncovered. The knights were not able to find anything, but maybe Adol would have better luck...</p><p>This basic start will begin you on your adventure as you guide Adol through the lands of Altago, The story from here will have you finding dragon alters through the land in an attempt to figure out why these dragons chose our red-headed hero as their chosen warrior... because of course they did. (If you know the series, you know why I it that way.) There will be little in the way of twists and turns along this leg of the journey, but then it opens up everything to lead to a grand finale appropriate of our experienced hero. Unfortunately it will be made up of two major twists... one pretty good, and one that just feels like it was made just to have one there. It's not quite as bad as it seems right away, but, it never sits quite right.</p><p>Overall though, like most of the series, expect a rather easy to follow story that gets insanely epic, even as it never gets all that complex.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Ys Seven was originally developed for the PSP, and as such you may already have some of the limitations in mind. After all, this is not a remake of any sort, but a direct port, upscaled from the little tiny portable screen to full HD resolutions.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQJ834U-irGGiigfbkYcij4iZYWkF4_unHtv-tfWuBeIs9NgT2YYq6_GBYfdgKLhJY28BDxOe5uOWO6XpFJTZyXVKPvi21B2yOj8-goZ2FOwnvOXZyaQnSEL6x7hMFroC2DfpKdaWOgQpdlUDfd0HybQyny2eb16M-9P4kumIj98tk1KDKam4OZeLMmn0/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h08m38s614.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQJ834U-irGGiigfbkYcij4iZYWkF4_unHtv-tfWuBeIs9NgT2YYq6_GBYfdgKLhJY28BDxOe5uOWO6XpFJTZyXVKPvi21B2yOj8-goZ2FOwnvOXZyaQnSEL6x7hMFroC2DfpKdaWOgQpdlUDfd0HybQyny2eb16M-9P4kumIj98tk1KDKam4OZeLMmn0/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h08m38s614.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>As such, you can expect the world to look fairly simple and perhaps even blocky. Nor is the there going to be much in the way of technical prowess coloring the world, as the detail is created with lower-resolution bitmap work. It looks clean enough, but to say it looks "dated" would be an understatement. It even has free-standing sprites for some of the object in the world that point this out since they would probably fit a 2D world better.</p><p>Thankfully the characters (both human and monster) work out much better. Where the world is there to give atmosphere, this is where the game spent the limited resources of it's original system and it shows. And don't get me wrong, they still look dated, but the level of work is might higher, between art and modelling. If I have any complaint here, it's that the faces can look kinda dumb in their fixed positions.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM38nlfYDxf0tRZsH3birUpNv6lmcRwiyuwc_k29A0FVZHgke7il7nmhwtYq2Hnia4izN_uM4sAeMecZLKsRBZ-i03u2oGbsv-Sy2AQtdgftpw51j8xPi2NXasRCr8L1kfju3CahH0M8Gzn-fOaeH6wmbmxWn1yBmAfNjgPxJGRHAMtKG2mdipp5ZxS70/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h09m22s983.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM38nlfYDxf0tRZsH3birUpNv6lmcRwiyuwc_k29A0FVZHgke7il7nmhwtYq2Hnia4izN_uM4sAeMecZLKsRBZ-i03u2oGbsv-Sy2AQtdgftpw51j8xPi2NXasRCr8L1kfju3CahH0M8Gzn-fOaeH6wmbmxWn1yBmAfNjgPxJGRHAMtKG2mdipp5ZxS70/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h09m22s983.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Not that you will pay a lot of attention to those expressions as the game also features fully drawn facial work whenever anyone talks, and this looks just as good as anything the series has offered so far! Everyone fits their moods and personalities perfectly and just add some real feel to the characters.</p><p>And overall the result is a game that looks dated. It is clear the PSP was used to try to get as close as they could to having a PS2 in the palm of your hands, and while that doesn't sound particularly great by today's standards, they succeeded. And with the resolution boost of this version, everything retains that vibe, but cleaner and clearer then ever. Retro-fans will simply love this look into yester-year.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Like just about every game in this series so far, the star of the show is once again the soundtrack. It will take a little time to set in, as the game uses duclet tones and the sea to feel laid back before the title screen, but as always the energy that is always there makes itself apparent when the game opens up with a title cutscene that walks that perfect balance between cryptic and spoiler where it gives nothing away, yet highlights everything you saw in your adventure if you watch it after finishing the game, melting metal and classical in a way that just always felt great for me. In essence, it's a mini Anime Music Video right there to introduce you to it all!</p><p>The rest of the soundtrack, however, runs the range from exactly what you would expect for a game trying to say "see? we can do PS2 on the go" back in the day to it's own... and mixes it well. You won't be in game more then 10 minutes before you get whiplash from it in the best way possible as you meet the first character with their own theme: one that feels heavy and menacing. It is perhaps one of the best uses of music whiplash I have heard in a while</p><p>And of course when things get crazy the music comes fulling into it's own as metal and string clash in ways that few other games do, much less so consistently over it's entire franchise! No one of these games may be my favorite soundtrack of all time (that honor goes to <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2015/05/axiom-verge-pc-review.html">Axiom Verge</a>), but few series have me looking forward to combat to hear the accompanying music every time like this. Enjoy!</p><p>Sadly, this energy and effort does not go far beyond the music. The sound effects you hear are pretty much the standard for gaming with slashes, thuds, and thwack noises you expect to hear are all in place for combat, and little else you will be paying attention to. It's not all there is, for example footsteps sound descent enough and even change with the area you are stomping through, but it's basically ambiance that will fall to wayside due to how awesome that soundtrack is and the fact that all the tells enemies have are visual, not audio, so it just doesn't matter much. And do not expect the voices to add to this either. This game has none outside of battle-grunts.</p><p>7/10</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> Ys Seven is an action RPG which you will play from a fixed camera, much like most of the franchise up to this point. It will start you in the main city of Altago and leave you to your devices so you can get a feel of how Adol and Dogi move before moving the story along and giving you a real reason to be there. And with that, it's time to mix combat into the game.</p><p>And that combat will not disappoint. Much like other games in the franchise, combat is a bit more technical then most action games, requiring you not to dodge enemies, but their attacks. You would think this would make things easier, and sometimes it can be if you are quick and can take the monster you are fighting down before it can fight back, but this is not going to be something you can count on doing. Rather, you will likely spend time learning the enemy's tells so you can effectively dance around them and striking where there is a chance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj26EJg79qb6aJjNY9QA2p4URstvxbbYJ_l46kAf1Aqw0_OjoRuHT5gsbtWvyj2N9Ls7zesBb_UkieRGPqtnC3nHtyxqdeFlLGHpqipdfvx3Ri3gfPM4Ad-ueWq9qzRg6xKyP3zTiLVBFxKB4N1W_f4KRltrTZCZVWL6dtyBvCLO_4BUPUIU6VtBSIbgLo/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h10m51s204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj26EJg79qb6aJjNY9QA2p4URstvxbbYJ_l46kAf1Aqw0_OjoRuHT5gsbtWvyj2N9Ls7zesBb_UkieRGPqtnC3nHtyxqdeFlLGHpqipdfvx3Ri3gfPM4Ad-ueWq9qzRg6xKyP3zTiLVBFxKB4N1W_f4KRltrTZCZVWL6dtyBvCLO_4BUPUIU6VtBSIbgLo/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h10m51s204.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But basic weapons will only be part of your arsenal, for each character also has a set of special moves they will have access to as well. Using these techniques will cost SP points, but you gain them back with regular combat, making for a balance in action you will have to maintain to be effective. On top of this you will also find yourself in a "rock/paper/scissors" scenario. At any given time you can swap between your three active characters any time, and each will specialize in a specific weapon. Each one of these will fit into one of three roles: slicing, blunt, or piercing, and each of these will match specific enemies based on if they fly, are armored, or fleshy. This is obviously not the case for all enemies, but many will likely require you to take direct control of the strategy by swaping away from Adol for a while, or back as needed.</p><p>Most of the time if you have more then three allies, you can select which ones you want in your active party via a camp menu (which will also be where you equip everyone: both any equipment you get as well as techniques), allowing you to adapt the group to fit your style or even the area you are in, but not always. A traditional limitation to this franchise is that once you are facing off with a boss, you will have to face it with your current team, so plan wisely.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztPHDjCokMZpsgFOhbTndPuAaDEviswQE_lF_Z4gaTfdK5spLVJw21tJEm6MeDkh5huw5wH9MMLKlSbU22SxMKH6s92kISb1UZ443GQSepQ_8jHUvK2Y1WxaY4Nu_nQZfs-dKgOYCj8tid1H0LP_3hWRxzQ23QgerN-nWQTcZBHQlUlEzG2GJoGRD4lM/s500/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h09m44s241.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztPHDjCokMZpsgFOhbTndPuAaDEviswQE_lF_Z4gaTfdK5spLVJw21tJEm6MeDkh5huw5wH9MMLKlSbU22SxMKH6s92kISb1UZ443GQSepQ_8jHUvK2Y1WxaY4Nu_nQZfs-dKgOYCj8tid1H0LP_3hWRxzQ23QgerN-nWQTcZBHQlUlEzG2GJoGRD4lM/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-09-05-22h09m44s241.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>The result is a back and forth as you respond to the enemy, dodging their attacks and darting in to make your own strikes in a dance that is both strategic and satisfying and will leave you excited to see what the next big boss you find is. But I wouldn't call it the perfect blend, as one of the late bosses prove to me. Don't get me wrong, the dance was real, but he makes you wait for each and every round for ridiculously long times. But if you can put up with this one fight, the rest of the game is beyond excellent and leave this one fight as a blip against everything else offered.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> Outside of the enemy type, this game was a completely bug-free experience! I had no issues with this game at all.</p><p></p><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Overall:</b> Once again, I have to say I absolutely loved another game from the Ys franchise. And while it is not the absolute best of the best, it is right up there with it. In fact you can clearly see a lot of what made <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/03/ys-memories-of-celceta-pc-review.html">Memories of Celceta</a> so great got it's start here. Yes, that game balanced it out better, but the formula was great from the start and I can only hope to see more of this as we go on. Another phenomenal game in the series!</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Score:</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" width="144" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> 8/10<br /></div><p><br /><b>System Requirements:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Intel Core i5 2.4 Ghz</li><li>1 GB RAM<br /></li><li>Intel HD Graphics 4400</li><li>Windows 7/8/10<br /></li><li>2 GB hard drive space</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 5 5600G<b> </b>running at 3.9 Ghz</li><li>16 GB RAM</li><li>Windows 11</li><li><a href="https://www.pdp.com/en/shop/controller/pdp-dx-wired-controller-red" target="_blank">PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)</a></li></ul><p><b>Source: <a href="https://www.gog.com/en/game/ys_seven" target="_blank">gog.com</a></b></p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-82220376308760686012023-08-27T11:16:00.002-04:002023-08-27T11:16:42.916-04:00Wire Lips (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/08/wire-lips-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA5CaN7KWOoO37JuGjTKxw781zAVX9p7sMYFFQr5iqDjKXpewAoW9qeMKaHiff3DZLuks4Z9_UBQZbdTUw61W-Oy82g6CLywafTmSQZFzGUqDnTtVUNlh62AkruDrQuFPnb8Yg5Lt3w5tWYIMIPYsTvpFnEWKn1g-SxKDZ_zmISnQritOCysTDOaogIik/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h21m29s274.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>As another week comes to an end, it was time to show off another game you might see played during the big <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" target="_blank">Extra Life</a> marathon. And once again the game selected was a smaller one I was able to finish up in one sitting. This time, we are much more homebound, however, as we wander the apartment while home alone. The doorbell may not be working, but that's ok. You are welcome anytime. Come on in.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> It all started about a month ago. Leta and Lina had gone out that fateful day to the mountains. Their plan had been simple: go out hiking and take some scenic photos. Unfortunately for them, they found more then nature. Specifically, they found an artifact: a sealed ornate music box. Lina decided since no one was there to claim it, she would take it home... and disappeared soon afterwards. All that was left behind was the box and a photo of her. Being her best friend, Leta took the box home.</p><p>That's when the photos started showing up. No matter how many times Leta throws them out, she always finds another of that same picture of Leta in her house somewhere later on. After burning several over the past week, things are starting to tick up a notch as the curse that took her friend now begins to really push into her life and turn it upside down in her own private hell.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiseV7QOb11jlO7Vmt73pDzvZRZZrc9s1LIPUXz4XwP1qkwsqepsQ64ms-bu-0lSOW0Taci42Ipd8eEuShNN7Wto91zyPdqMT2UdtUP2Yh33DRs2b-lsqi1WFqOv-7bxk7w1pvPc_x886cr_2F-aCaBNKYD_UIXdIOPr6VWXcRar3H0MCrvIFw4DmUaJUc/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h21m42s939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiseV7QOb11jlO7Vmt73pDzvZRZZrc9s1LIPUXz4XwP1qkwsqepsQ64ms-bu-0lSOW0Taci42Ipd8eEuShNN7Wto91zyPdqMT2UdtUP2Yh33DRs2b-lsqi1WFqOv-7bxk7w1pvPc_x886cr_2F-aCaBNKYD_UIXdIOPr6VWXcRar3H0MCrvIFw4DmUaJUc/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h21m42s939.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>There is really little else I can say about the story, as even this is partially from reading the description on the Steam page and embellishing that with interpretations the game offered via in-game details. There is little here that is given as an absolute outside of two potential info-dumps depending on which ending you get, well kind of two endings. But we will get back to that in the gameplay sections. For now all I can say is the story is not very direct and really has no meaning until the very end of the game.</p><p>Although that may not be a bad thing in this case. No offense to the developers, but it's pretty obvious English is not their first language. And that is not to say they can't get their ideas across, they do outside of a few weird typos. But their choice phrasing just feels off... sometimes like they want to describe a situation like the character talking is terrified, but the wording feels off enough to ruin the illusion in favor of "well that's strange."</p><p>6/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> I have to give this game a lot of credit in the visual department. Like many of it's kind, you will play from a third person view as you guide Leta around, but it doesn't aim for photo-realism at all. Rather, you will be met with visuals that seem much more inspired by some combination of classic Pixar films (think Toy Story 2) and Tim Burton's stop-motion animation. Everything has a cartoonish feel to the world, even as it still manages to look gloomy. Toss in some nicely handled shadow and lighting and the mood is set surprisingly well.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisR59SpGQIMfNmBg55XIfJRy_zgcbi-bCzCqDY4t2ybZKNkhRw5_tuS9s4sMO_ulRUgR3E9RkctnAatclqd1xUqWuBUzoVp0W1hhkc__6iL6P8s0Bd3ovn64S2Cp08N8IgakhJbATUFo_JhkgTV3YdYmhQUVP3lfj9UBSFfqMgdSIAB9CofXba8SDAU6Y/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h23m21s986.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisR59SpGQIMfNmBg55XIfJRy_zgcbi-bCzCqDY4t2ybZKNkhRw5_tuS9s4sMO_ulRUgR3E9RkctnAatclqd1xUqWuBUzoVp0W1hhkc__6iL6P8s0Bd3ovn64S2Cp08N8IgakhJbATUFo_JhkgTV3YdYmhQUVP3lfj9UBSFfqMgdSIAB9CofXba8SDAU6Y/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h23m21s986.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Personalizing this mood herself is Leta. Leta is a teenage goth girl, who wanders the halls in a black sweater and worried look that somehow just makes the horror of this world that much more believable. Although sadly that expression won't be in view much (well unless you look in mirrors, anyway) due to seeing the world from behind and over her shoulder. It's just so expressive, right down to her eyes darting around or zeroing in rather then just staring straight ahead like you might expect for a character you really are supposed to be looking at things with rather then looking at. The studio, despite being clearly an indie one, has spent the time to really bring her to life.</p><p>Unfortunately, there is really little else in the way of characters they could do this with since the entire game takes place in her apartment where she lives with her mother... and her mother is away at work when all Hell breaks loose. Still I suppose that hellishness is it's own character this time as well, and this also shines through what the game offers. Even the camera choice itself adds to the unsettling nature the game gives. Rather then something standard you might expect, it's ever so slightly rounded, causing the geometry to conform to this view and making everything slightly off-balance in a way that while only really noticeable at the sides of the screen, can be felt in how the whole view is not quite right. Absolutely brilliant choice to make!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7swtvvNIWm7KBeKgl_64UbnnctgLem9SyIcY6rkZRuJbroDYr11lWszhRQ-h9T6VYVtt4_BKdj354UC9BfhQSWaEDxfIlyiUHJNJ6ijQcZwCW4IKVkPJzW4yp80S43HwE8RFNfO2JRzuc81cX1LqOknG922v8KApUJr-EZhUNmq8NfPR5VLHPFv4ZTmk/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h24m05s733.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7swtvvNIWm7KBeKgl_64UbnnctgLem9SyIcY6rkZRuJbroDYr11lWszhRQ-h9T6VYVtt4_BKdj354UC9BfhQSWaEDxfIlyiUHJNJ6ijQcZwCW4IKVkPJzW4yp80S43HwE8RFNfO2JRzuc81cX1LqOknG922v8KApUJr-EZhUNmq8NfPR5VLHPFv4ZTmk/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h24m05s733.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>However, that is not to say everything is perfect here. Don't get me wrong, this isn't so much the other shoe dropping as some of their choices making technical limitations in the game absolutely impossible to not notice... and all of them come back to that camera. In essence, it's just about glued to Leta's shoulder at a specific distance. You can look up and down and even spin it around her, but the moment you are move, it's right back in that place, obstructing about 1/4th of your camera view with the back of her head... and the very low-grade render of her hair. If her face looks like it could be in a classic Pixar movie, this view shatters that impression instantly, bringing you back to the fact that this is a game that isn't even trying to use up-to-date effects and literally putting it in your face. It doesn't look bad, but it looks old... much older then a game made in 2020 probably should. Nor is that camera done causing trouble. It's stiff hold on location around Leto also lends it to some really odd clipping issues and occasionally getting in the way of navigating the halls of the apartment, but thankfully those situations are much more few and far between.</p><p>Overall though, this is some nitpicky things that bothered me for the first section of the game before things took off too much to care. This is definitely a great looking title overall.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> The soundscape here fairs a bit better then the graphics do. There is no voice work at all in the game, which is probably for the best considering the lines you get when Leto talks to herself I mentioned in the story part of the game, but it also works into the environmental work as well. There is very little music in this game at all, so what you hear for the most part is the world itself, and this the game excels at! From the typing of the keyboard, to things falling (or being thrown?) off shelves, to the thunderstorm outside, to footsteps you can hear moving around beyond the walls of the room you are in, everything about this game's world just sounds right and spooky! it would be a shame to let anything get in the way of that, and the developers knew it! It was good enough I seriously had to wonder while playing why this wasn't made into a VR experience... the sound work was already that good.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> This game is straight up a horror walking-sim. I can not describe it any other way. You will wander around and be allowed to do only a few things: what you need to do to proceed and find the hidden objects in the game which are scattered through the 5 chapters the game is made of. These objects will decide what endings are available to you, although I do not know if you manage to get all of them if the good ending will flow in naturally to make up the final scene. I was unable to do this. What I was able to find, though, is that in the extras menu, once all the items have been collected, the alternate good ending is selectable from there, so no the game doesn't make you replay even a portion if you are just going back to get those. Once you have them all, feel free to quit and go see what you earned.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCCIxk-sbEu1squIR2fev5H0b0wnYsqpEGLvERkvPuoePC_wVLyoDYpEiOvPVwIIwzksryA9T5nA3xtZcalUzFdiQkfbI342Rm9J5YxPHh50JgnCOr98nuCqpsTxEj6hCbR_N9ZszYgj230QaXSIBriF3zi1MJrHEw6SXGN48_rnmI-paBWNGMCsxoAnQ/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h22m41s691.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCCIxk-sbEu1squIR2fev5H0b0wnYsqpEGLvERkvPuoePC_wVLyoDYpEiOvPVwIIwzksryA9T5nA3xtZcalUzFdiQkfbI342Rm9J5YxPHh50JgnCOr98nuCqpsTxEj6hCbR_N9ZszYgj230QaXSIBriF3zi1MJrHEw6SXGN48_rnmI-paBWNGMCsxoAnQ/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h22m41s691.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And this brings up one of those points that just makes this game scream "small indie game" in one of the more annoying ways. The menus do not support mouse control at all. I don't think they support arrow keys either. Rather, they expect you to use the same WASD control scheme you will while playing. This is not a big deal since any PC gamer will feel right at home with this instantly once they get used to the idea that's all you get, but most games generally swap the mouse to a cursor when you open menus (main or option) and return to the way the game controls when you get into or return to the game. This one simply doesn't do that, opting to keep the game-control scheme the same despite the standards set by decades of gameplay.</p><p>And let's get to that gameplay now that we've handled the weirder things: there isn't much. Like I said, this is a walking sim, and the game will drag you by the nose from place to place with commands you get in the upper left corner of the screen. Most of the time this is something simple like "go to bed" or "make tea" or "find the sound" and if there is no objective, you will find one soon enough since the apartment really doesn't have a lot of places to get lost in.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkUPDF_NQa9xqt4RN0cF2Zkr6ljO4ik3cWUbOieG2u0l63SZxDu99nbtR9PB1g9XslA3N5UCc7tIbYBepDLulnd7z2fdXs7tf1hNjAbv_SsfSgvZBsttawdX-WbCVbn9HrBELivVxdJh4kRHhahMc86xH5gG-AU3qAEU0t5NoK2eiyZAUbn80CZzckgM/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h23m34s879.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkUPDF_NQa9xqt4RN0cF2Zkr6ljO4ik3cWUbOieG2u0l63SZxDu99nbtR9PB1g9XslA3N5UCc7tIbYBepDLulnd7z2fdXs7tf1hNjAbv_SsfSgvZBsttawdX-WbCVbn9HrBELivVxdJh4kRHhahMc86xH5gG-AU3qAEU0t5NoK2eiyZAUbn80CZzckgM/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-26-21h23m34s879.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But there are two real puzzles in the game before you are done (this is a short game, so I wouldn't have expected a lot of them): a padlock combination and a "rubix cube." The first really disappointed me. Finally I looked at the screen and saw I was going to have to figure something out, only for Leta to blurt out how to get the lock combination rather then let me look at it for a moment and make the connection between the icons at each number and things in the world. The cube was also easy, if not quite so obvious. If you pay attention, the answer is in the puzzle itself and neither has a penalty for getting it wrong. In fact the only penalty in the game at all is that you are denied access to the good ending for not finding all the hidden objects on the way.</p><p>I have to be blunt about this: Wire Lips is basically the standard of this type of gameplay and little else. It's not bad, but it's not great either. It's just a vehicle to experience the story and the atmosphere in, and to that end, it does it's job.</p><p>6/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> While this is not a particularly deep or complex game, it was a technically solid one. There were no bugs in my playthrough.</p><p></p><div><b><br /></b></div><p><b>Score:</b> If you are coming here for the gameplay, you are seriously in the wrong place. This is a walking-sim through and through and will offer very little to actually do. If you are here for a gripping and deep story, you too are in the wrong place. What is here is fine and works well enough, but it's a fairly standard horror story starting with a cursed object and really little to set it apart from other games, books, or movies just like it. However if you are here for the atmosphere, then you are in the right place. Everything else serves this master, and does so exceptionally well. The pacing is perfect and the world feels alive with malice. If that entices you, it's cheap enough to check for yourself at $5... and that's without any of Steam's notorious sales getting involved. But unless that brings you in, you probably want to go play something else instead.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Intel core i5 2300 running at 2.8 Ghz/AMD FX 8120 running at 3.1 ghz</li><li>4 GB RAM </li><li>Nvidia GT 630 or 650m/AMD Radeon HD6570</li><li>1 GB hard drive space</li><li>Windows 7/8/10</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1186220/Wire_Lips/" target="_blank">Steam</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-37857529024010258722023-08-20T22:21:00.001-04:002023-08-20T22:21:13.052-04:00The Shore (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-shore-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74RljowUW3FZ-vS4feJxvH-J8zlK6P7bkGXpe3qgv0NfuCidWMPmijJWn47qgRff1mJnmscsPJonggPyhDcAe5CS5064sDw-mHdfEeaeM1WL8c4xAJda1_RRKiVDjlqZYdSxGX3rje_dJDIAUTs3eJdJq3MEFYN7OhZeNVYQCJCEvuzlDDi7JHdg49LU/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h39m31s768.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>This is not a game that waited very long to play. Having picked it up on the Steam Summer sale, I had expected to put it aside for a lot longer. But instead thanks to another weekend game to show off for <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" target="_blank">Extra Life</a>, it jumped the line and I finished it in a single sitting. It's not a long game, but it was a long stream... I just couldn't let it go as I absolutely had a blast the entire time.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> Andrew was a fisherman, born and raised in the local area. He never regretted the job, but he does regret this trip for it. After all it's hard not to regret a trip that ended in the boat running aground on an unfamiliar island and leaving you stranded, but that's not the worst of it. That would be the fact that his daughter was with him on the trip and is now missing. And to make matters even worse, while wandering to find her, it doesn't take long before he starts to understand something here is very very wrong with the island itself.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMo5kEl2GOhn9o5lX3SRIoxqWfAw_Yl5FkrcvnuTJhG-VhlyrIyJTO2BBp2yqPw4ZqknOgBqXCbtrVXQzwYT8p36cIwtuZWa7tMvWGukr9buVJ5aUS4MrYDj-zuadT6wP-wxeExSDvKMysT-YHn-i14sS4kyJi1yewuKpXxMhEJc48atuwpmwVcnCtWmk/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h37m47s539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMo5kEl2GOhn9o5lX3SRIoxqWfAw_Yl5FkrcvnuTJhG-VhlyrIyJTO2BBp2yqPw4ZqknOgBqXCbtrVXQzwYT8p36cIwtuZWa7tMvWGukr9buVJ5aUS4MrYDj-zuadT6wP-wxeExSDvKMysT-YHn-i14sS4kyJi1yewuKpXxMhEJc48atuwpmwVcnCtWmk/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h37m47s539.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>In tradition of a Lovecraftian tail, you will start the game exploring the island, and start off finding traces of the events that have taken place here and what just might be here now as. It's a slow march, picking up speed as more and more insanity is uncovered and occurs around you, introducing you to several of the superstars of the mythos before your time is up.</p><p>Although for all the craziness of it, the central story remains rather basic this time around: you will be lead by "a dark shadow" to follow it's commands in the hopes that these actions and the will behind it can work together to bring your daughter back to you. You will be given a fittingly grandiose ending, and it all comes together beautifully, but it feels pretty straight forward, especially considering the source material. If you know the mythos, you will likely have a good idea of what it's getting at for Andrew and who's pulling strings. If not, the names likely wont mean much to you... but if may just strike your interest enough to read some of the author's work.</p><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Right off the bat, this game is an absolute stunner. You will play this game from a 1st person perspective, and the sheer level of detail you will see while playing will impress you, standing up to even some of the AAA games we see to this day. No it's not going to beat them out in the resolution of bitmaps on the models or anything like that, but what this vision displays so well should be a proud achievement for it's main developer and sole artist. That's right, all the grandeur, mood and splendor in the varied places you will see were made by the man who's credited with the game's development and to that end I simply must give ample credit to Mr. Ares Dragonis.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe52l-_5j0ZC4v2DMf8Hl_aDQhABcjpG30ySEnkvMu2NVEfeW6YYKeSnr86TYVhCfpFSkaLWVaEtoRUynu47vtuAX91KzgABALac2y-HlOgSKtEy6ct9No5HxPjuFFgDF_vAczrBmNcuE9uU2VH3Oc4sr0AesVBR-4LRaFSov-pDJVMp_j73qYbVP0k5c/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h39m20s314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe52l-_5j0ZC4v2DMf8Hl_aDQhABcjpG30ySEnkvMu2NVEfeW6YYKeSnr86TYVhCfpFSkaLWVaEtoRUynu47vtuAX91KzgABALac2y-HlOgSKtEy6ct9No5HxPjuFFgDF_vAczrBmNcuE9uU2VH3Oc4sr0AesVBR-4LRaFSov-pDJVMp_j73qYbVP0k5c/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h39m20s314.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And varied it is. What starts as simply an empty (if gorgeously lonely) island with a light house will lead to horrific and unexplainable artifacts, both here on it's shores and underwater and in alien landscapes that I dare not explain for their discovery is part of the experience we will get to later. Suffice it to say, this game is out to wow you and wow you it will, from beauty at first to horrifically fantastic by the end.</p><p>And that is not just the environment either... or even the items you will collect. I do not believe it would be much of a horror if telling you that you were not really alone here was a spoiler. You will find yourself face to face with various inhabitants before it is over, all of which are modeled exceptionally well. If there is any real weakness here, its the lack of this work.. you really won't see many until the second half of the game, and there is little variety in them once you do. Definitely a case of quality over quantity.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTW0UEGa3_t10EBg0G02oyzJWIxqAHZg0OJJG1YkyDQe9heKV7XE5Wabjmra6fLNAT28n57XLUkSfroMnOnzIOOtgMv8FbD70REue40Jy9V-AJjUnoUFvkEdw91h3qNqTdJgZF1zyqzR4c0dbQMS3FMnsUdNESNiL5U2L1BHGJDCBSHXnBnu68JKtn6Ds/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h37m54s627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTW0UEGa3_t10EBg0G02oyzJWIxqAHZg0OJJG1YkyDQe9heKV7XE5Wabjmra6fLNAT28n57XLUkSfroMnOnzIOOtgMv8FbD70REue40Jy9V-AJjUnoUFvkEdw91h3qNqTdJgZF1zyqzR4c0dbQMS3FMnsUdNESNiL5U2L1BHGJDCBSHXnBnu68JKtn6Ds/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h37m54s627.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>And while the game has absolutely no interface to speak of, I would also like to take a little extra time to talk about the inventory screen. Where most games would be happy to dull your main view to display a list or a grid, The Shore has gone a very retro-way with this one, opting to completely replace the screen when looking with a very well detailed and organized inventory screen all it's own, set to a rather nice looking inside of a boat. Theme fitting and unique enough to warrant it's own mention. It's not going to change your opinion of the game's looks but it will make it easy to confirm what you have available at a glance and still look exceptionally good doing it.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> And much like the graphics, this is is a quality over quantity scenario. The music making up the space is a mix of ambient noises, slightly technological horror-scapes of noise and war-drums, and classical music for the most part: each set to their own moments and servicing the experience by driving up tension, speaking to the eerie beauty of the place, you are in, or just reminding you how far from home you really are. It isn't a lot, but it was made with an exacting focus on what it was to do, and fits exceptionally well every second you are playing. You might even remember some of the more intense and other-worldly parts for a while. Once again, with a single artist putting all this together, I once again have to tip my hat to the composer of this game. So Mr. Thanos Zampoukas, please take a bow!</p><p>But music will not be all you hear, and the sound effect here are again, both limited and top notch. Here the most common thing you will hear will be the sound of your own feet as you walk and run around the various locations, reflecting the type of surface you are on to the point they just blend in perfectly. But everything here fits well, from the alien artifacts you use and turn on as needed to the crumbling of stone to the shrieks of alien beasts who may or may not want to devour you on sight.</p><p>But the real star here is the voice acting. Most of the time, there are two dominant voices through this game... Andrew when talking to himself or talking to the voice that guides him. These two (as well as the occasional other cast member of eldritch beings) are absolutely fantastic, making every word something to adore listening to.</p><p>But that is sadly also where this game fails the soundscape as well... the few times you hear your daughter speak it just sounds incredibly stilted and she ruins every scene she's in (thankfully few and never in the moment horror).</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> This is where The Shore really surprised me, and for the better. I went in expecting a short and simple point and click adventure where I would hunt for objects for use in puzzles and maybe a threat or two to avoid. This, effectively, is how the game began, but not how it ended. You start running around the island with the goal of completing rituals and finding objects you can use to unlock passages to reach new locations, guided by a shadowy voice and notes in bottles from the last group of sailors who got stuck here. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6VP08eI1O0g_FVNLgcYXTtehrIOrNc35NxD026CDzWWMj6L1dGnq5XC8eGGMML2_ZT7Z3zNcM0bbvwQVByMtFJJlYS7GtG3B0_MgR5jNGYuKSIlKcWKAPsmUMu7DlbGznKV1wbcoP4H8mjGJs1gxz0SUJAiqDv0FzYxVKtbQ8Vunlgxc1NwA2vH9fmc/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h39m41s093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6VP08eI1O0g_FVNLgcYXTtehrIOrNc35NxD026CDzWWMj6L1dGnq5XC8eGGMML2_ZT7Z3zNcM0bbvwQVByMtFJJlYS7GtG3B0_MgR5jNGYuKSIlKcWKAPsmUMu7DlbGznKV1wbcoP4H8mjGJs1gxz0SUJAiqDv0FzYxVKtbQ8Vunlgxc1NwA2vH9fmc/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-19-22h39m41s093.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>But overtime, the voice takes over this guiding force role and leads you down a lot more violent path by handing you an artifact capable of blasting the creatures you encounter with dark energy beams. Your environment also changes starkly to alien worlds that appear inspired by Giger and it only gets weirder from there. The tone has changed along with the gameplay. Now you can expect to be in much more of a horror shooter then a horror point and click, fighting back against the abominations of the unknown using their own weapon against them. And those of you screaming "this isn't how Lovecraft is supposed to be!" you're right. But most of the time, killing isn't your goal, as most of the real threats either are too strong to kill or just plain don't stay dead, respawning almost instantly. </p><p>No, your goal is to buy distance between you and the unspeakable horrors while you flee to the next location or maybe figure out what you need to do. While not particularly difficult, it is tense as hell since you know it won't take much to trip you up and make you monster-food. Add to this a perfect use of atmosphere and be ready to panic just a little bit. Simply put, it's brilliant from this point on in a way that you just never saw coming.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> Sadly I can not say this game ran flawlessly. Most of the issues I had could be chalked up to a bit of jank that was overlooked during development, there was one point where the game actually broke down to be unplayable. It didn't crash, but it did leave me in a dead-man-walking scenario like I don't remember seeing this since <a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2012/06/alice-madness-returns-pc-review.html">Alice: The Madness Returns</a>.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Missing graphics/clipping through the world:</b> I think I can count the times I saw this in my entire playthrough on one hand, but there are a few places where the locations were just not quite finished right. Be it a tunnel you could duck to enter just enough to clip your view through the roof, or holes in the game you can find and look through, there are a few places the game will show you more then it means to. Now do not get me wrong. NOTHING here will break the game as you will never get our of bounds or fall off the map or anything like that. But you will easily get a glimpse into the great beyond (apparently, it's all water).</li><li><b>Menu takes a few tries to appear:</b> This issue is a bit more common though, I'm afraid. In fact you can just about count on it happening once per session. Once in the game, like you would expect on a PC title, hitting escape brings up the main menu from where you can choose to quit to the title, adjust graphics, look at controls, and the like. The problem is that the game seems to need some extra prodding to make it appear. The first time you hit escape, you will see your mouse cursor appear, but no menu. Hitting escape again will bring you back to the game, and a 3rd time will bring up the menu without issue. Its annoying but barely more then a reliable to recreate inconvenience.... especially as the game relies on checkpoints to save rather then making (or letting) you do it.</li><li><b>I think I was supposed to be dead:</b> However, the game did break-down once while playing. It didn't crash or anything, but rather hit a glitch that just prevented me from going forward. In my arrogance, I had tried to back into a door while firing at a monster chasing me rather then turn around and look where I was going. The geometry wasn't helpful to this and I quickly became monster food... well I should have. I DID get through the door, but I couldn't use my weaponry OR die from the enemies in the new room. I think I somehow died without dying. This was fixed by quitting the session and selecting to continue my game. Thankfully checkpoints are generous and I only had to dodge that same monster again so it wasn't a huge loss.</li></ul><p></p><div><b><br /></b></div><p><b>Score:</b> As noted in the gameplay section, this game pleasantly surprised me. From how good it looked and sounded to even what kind of gameplay it expected out of you, nothing was what it seemed... and yet that is somehow fitting for a game of the mythos. Honestly if you like horror games in first person and enjoy the build up as much as the intensity of the payoff, you should absolutely give this one a shot! And if you have a taste for Lovecraft in particular, welcome... make yourself at home.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlmOFZeTQ6M/UN-GGojQG7I/AAAAAAAAAUA/M2s_5ZUULls/s144/score%25208.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>Intel core i5 4400/AMD Ryzen 5 1600</li><li>8 GB RAM </li><li>Nvidia GTX 1060 (3GB VRAM)</li><li>15 GB hard drive space</li><li>64-bit Windows 7</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1297300/The_Shore/">Steam</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-63459796286993774012023-08-13T19:28:00.001-04:002023-08-13T19:29:15.626-04:00Extra-Life 2023 August Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMhZIEYrm3jO_oM9aidtDR88c85dCR1oOC_9L6V68P2KEwjqR4LqeUKyrvXbHHUa3pGE9HZAHKdB2Ge9FOSHMapONQj5Ng1BPCb5Kbtw-CO_k5owdTrRRYB8OHkR7DegzznYX2OIs2xC2b4DLg6bkDto8QSwthBFalz9E3M73iJX5cVtFVKNYWGypS8sQ/s400/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMhZIEYrm3jO_oM9aidtDR88c85dCR1oOC_9L6V68P2KEwjqR4LqeUKyrvXbHHUa3pGE9HZAHKdB2Ge9FOSHMapONQj5Ng1BPCb5Kbtw-CO_k5owdTrRRYB8OHkR7DegzznYX2OIs2xC2b4DLg6bkDto8QSwthBFalz9E3M73iJX5cVtFVKNYWGypS8sQ/s16000/Extra_Life_blue.png.de43ee0d584b97c5c7bbf824375944a8.png" /></a></div><br /><p>Hi everyone! Once again checking in as a few more months have slipped by and November is getting ever closer to us. With this month comes the big day us Lifers look forward to, the 24-hour gaming marathon!</p><p>But I'm getting ahead of myself. After all, if this is your first time on the page, you may not yet know what I'm talking about. But the answer to that is simple: <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/" target="_blank">Extra-Life</a>!</p><p>But what is Extra-Life? Well, first and foremost, Extra-Life is a charity event gamers from around the world take part in. We all pick a hospital we want to play for and drive donations to help them and the sick kids they are taking care of, culminating in early November when we take on the big event: a 24-hour gaming marathon. That's right. Extra-Life is all about playing video games to help sick kids. Sound impossible? Not at all. I myself can attest to taking part in this event since it first started, but if you want the origins, <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1306" target="_blank">I would let the site itself tell the tail</a> far better then I ever could.</p><p>And no, you don't have to worry about maintaining things. All you need to do is sign up (button on the main page of the Extra-Life site) and ask for help from your friends, family, workplace, you name it. And any help you bring to the table yourself is also more then welcome to help the kids who truly need it the most. All resources and details you could need are right there.</p><p>Of course if you do not feel like you could do a 24 marathon, you can always cheer and help the rest of us out. If you want to help our team here directly, thank you so much! You can find <a href="https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutDown" target="_blank">our team page right here</a>, which will include one of our streamer's stream live (if they are life at the time) and a donate button which will let you pick who to help directly (we all play for our own hospitals, so you can pick which one you want to help this way). Thank you again for any help you want to give!</p><p>But on that note, I'm afraid I have to run... have a good weekend, and see you next time. Be that here on the page or in the streams!</p><p>Thank you!</p><p>-Megabyte</p>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161838831138728945.post-12171632171627639932023-08-13T17:09:00.004-04:002023-08-13T17:09:38.059-04:00Serena (PC) Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://redsectorshutdown.blogspot.com/2023/08/serena-pc-review.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="175" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNuoacFKUrffbPJsFoNSUjLIQECGONlrvCDxgExYdaVTelOZ9tE42VlmrFWVc1-JmUhtASgfs8V5dKPQLWncvYqU6EnW3qzo7AqCHOoso9epznitdpmKZB3ZCAqFwq7IWTfvqwVFWgjrJI5vspje4MxFRBbuu-sn21t-RpF1_J3SU3nnxRlQIRpzJvMg/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-12-22h35m15s890.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Once again we find ourselves looking over a one-off game shown off for <a href="http://extra-life.org" target="_blank">Extra-Life</a>. Designed to be a short atmospheric experience, I wasn't expecting a lot out of it, but I was wrong. What it is meant to do, it is a masterpiece at, and I am REALLY glad I walked into this gut-punch of an experience.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><b>Story:</b> A man sits has his table. It is old and worn, much like the cabin it resides in. Things are a bit neglected in this place, but that is not something he cares about. Right now, he sits at this table looking at a photo of him and his wife Serena. But something isn't right... her face is blurry as his memory of her. What happened? Where is she? Tonight, we take a trip through memory lane to figure these things out.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimTTFold87iO47PHoWYdMt361WLJM_l_4TuTV8RfJTswBybNIT88AJwzYKEY7CrEongo14UoQyPTxkAbbjTS1apu3gSBvNoWM7fPnv5ASGICyPbc7WquYaa-rNXqZYZ4r2krEznqyoZPdyiC_L5V_COGo3djOXmSDPCGY688MsBWhzXhSRZIwPHvmE4y0/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-12-22h32m42s821.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimTTFold87iO47PHoWYdMt361WLJM_l_4TuTV8RfJTswBybNIT88AJwzYKEY7CrEongo14UoQyPTxkAbbjTS1apu3gSBvNoWM7fPnv5ASGICyPbc7WquYaa-rNXqZYZ4r2krEznqyoZPdyiC_L5V_COGo3djOXmSDPCGY688MsBWhzXhSRZIwPHvmE4y0/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-12-22h32m42s821.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>To explain anything more then that is to do this game an EXTREME disservice since it will live and die on the story alone for anyone who choses to experience it. What I can tell you is this is one of those stories that takes a slow burn and build up before hitting you in the gut at the end. I will explain no more... not because it is bad. Quite the opposite, and I refuse to give anything away. The only reason it's not a solid 9 in this category is it can be easy to miss details that will still leave this situation just as impactful, but muddy up the details.</p><p>8/10</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Graphics:</b> Honestly this game is absolutely gorgeous, but it's obvious right away that shortcuts were taken on the way to that. You will play the game from a first person perspective giving you complete freedom to look in any direction you like, suggesting a fully rendered 3D world, but the moment you move around, it jumps to the next location, giving away most of the game is more of a pre-rendered picture instead of an actual environment. The end result however still looks fantastic. It's just a shame how small the game world is. You basically have a handful of positions around the cabin that had to be pre-rendered, with a zoom and transitions between them.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWVysGs6CdrL6z_FA_0zD53udwUDvYCZDHa00Dqb74UseqABH0pHAyTsjInX2kALKPSH4GMWix1HIzBMlx_p2LdQc8YsjkkA8URVXPZbdZxiH4bf1gsrNabPrI7kw2attEXLh_l0QCCiPvLeG7VbgpIjs2hH7wU2D_3TSAckylFAVoLQLFys5COOofyek/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-12-22h33m07s601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWVysGs6CdrL6z_FA_0zD53udwUDvYCZDHa00Dqb74UseqABH0pHAyTsjInX2kALKPSH4GMWix1HIzBMlx_p2LdQc8YsjkkA8URVXPZbdZxiH4bf1gsrNabPrI7kw2attEXLh_l0QCCiPvLeG7VbgpIjs2hH7wU2D_3TSAckylFAVoLQLFys5COOofyek/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-12-22h33m07s601.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>You do not get much of a view of the outside world to compliment this as the windows are grimy as all hell, but I think that was by design of the game mood, not convenience, cause this game is also very gloomy. The place is rundown, and while there are definitely some funny things in the game (I highly recommend looking over the bookshelf and reading off some book names), overall its a gloomy poorly lit old rundown cabin, and it fits wonderfully to that atmosphere.</p><p>8/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sound:</b> Sound, like the graphics, are also limited by the small piece of the world the game takes place in. You have very real sounding sound effects, but it's basically limited to the sounds of a ticking clock, shelves and cabinets opening and shutting, and the creaking floor as you move around the cabin. There is really little else that can make noise in game, settling in for the quiet of this old place.</p><p>Music, is also limited, used basically to note when the story progresses and for a final crescendo during the end credits. But at the same time I think this was the best way they could use it. In essence, the silence is your constant companion, being broken only when things progress and in a way that compliments the story. So yes, it's very limited, but once again, less is more this time around.</p><p>But I can't say the same about the voice work. The name of this game is monologue and this is the main way the game will tell you what is going on. As you navigate the cabin and investigate the artifacts of the lives lived here, the man we are playing as will comment as he tries to remember and grasp the details emerging from his head about it all. Some of it is funny. Some of it is wholesome. While yet more is dark and sinister and even a little scary from time to time. Hat's off to this voice actor and his work through the game. And yet, his voice is not the only one in this game, Sometimes, he will remember commends of his wife Serena... or even find notes that will be read in her voice. She too did an amazing job, the two of them carrying the plot of this game brilliantly.</p><p>9/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Gameplay:</b> And this is probably the weakest part of the game. At it's core, Serena is a point and click game which you will play from a first person perspective. All your interactions with the game will be controlled by the mouse with the cursor's form telling you what you can do. Depending on if you are zoomed in on an interesting item or not, moving that mouse will either tilt the camera with your mouse movements or move freely over the interesting area.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYh1y1GX2nnzgOoAc26Yr3iJEGxyNdl6ohTaBSWJfnfwDSLhiWXqdEF1C_EAtFCnu5QWfsj1PlrvL4PaL08QTGIMZe5E2j9eut_S-TY8OojbH-Rk9xp8FcsTzC-nMVDAFpeOXq62Ql6fEzZNCpxgSLw6SrIWqMBJc6bARh74XJ0XqgycJ09_cCgLEpK3Y/s500/vlcsnap-2023-08-12-22h33m02s306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYh1y1GX2nnzgOoAc26Yr3iJEGxyNdl6ohTaBSWJfnfwDSLhiWXqdEF1C_EAtFCnu5QWfsj1PlrvL4PaL08QTGIMZe5E2j9eut_S-TY8OojbH-Rk9xp8FcsTzC-nMVDAFpeOXq62Ql6fEzZNCpxgSLw6SrIWqMBJc6bARh74XJ0XqgycJ09_cCgLEpK3Y/s16000/vlcsnap-2023-08-12-22h33m02s306.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Sadly there really isn't much in the way of puzzles to go with this gameplay. Rather it's all about finding the right dialog to jog your memory of the what life was like in this little place. The entire game is more of a narrative experience where you find the pieces to move that story along, and it is a very short experience. There is no saving since it was designed to be played in a single sitting. You sit down, you play, and when you finish you get to think about what you just witnessed.</p><p>What is here supports the whole experience beautifully, but that's all it does. As far as gameplay goes, there just isn't much here.</p><p>5/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Bugs:</b> While a little rough around the edges (I have no other way to describe a game opting to display the title over the opening scene instead of having a real title screen/menu at all and quits as soon as the credits roll), it ran flawlessly. There are no bugs I could see in this game.</p><div><b><br /></b></div><p><b>Score:</b> A short title you can and likely will complete in an hour, Serena is very light on gameplay, but exceptionally rich in atmosphere and story. If anything, this is the kind of game that is more of an experience then a game, but is exceptionally good at that. And to that end, if it was a few bucks, it would even still be worth your time. As a free game, however, it is an amazing experience and if you like a touch of the gloom and a taste of genuine depression, you need to take some time with this game. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="144" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQBD7QXGLIU/UN-GGcP2lXI/AAAAAAAAAT0/Rbe7Sy1aWqE/s144/score%25207.png" width="144" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>7/10</p><p><br /></p><p><b>System Requirements:</b></p><ul><li>1.6 Ghz processor </li><li>1 GB RAM </li><li>Any GPU that supports Open GL 2.0 with 128 MB of VRAM</li><li>500 MB hard drive space</li><li>Windows XP</li></ul><p><b>System Specs:</b><br /></p><ul><li>Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz</li><li>32 GB RAM</li><li>AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)</li><li>Windows 11 (64 Bit)</li></ul><div><b>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/272060/Serena/">Steam</a></b></div>Megabytehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07816408728097432454noreply@blogger.com0