General gaming chatter

[maxbeedo]

Yakuza 0 is the easiest to jump in on, and is probably the best all-around.  It's a prequel that was made later, so it sets up connections for later games but is mostly self-contained.  Kiwami and Kiwami 2 are remakes of 1 and 2 that were rebuilt with 0 in mind, so they further build on events that happen in 0, so 0 is now the "foundation".  I believe 0 is also on Game Pass, and the entire series will be on Steam shortly (some are already). 

[Kasferatu]

A couple of reviewers I trust have dampened my excitement for it - basically saying it is fun but kinda mediocre - and certainly doesn't capture what is great about the Cyberpunk genre in general.  I'll pick it up when its patched and cheap.

In the mean time I've had a late contender for GOTY.  Monster Train appeared on gamepass and I'm absolutely addicted to it.

Tell those reviewers to put the crack pipe down.

In my experience, people who say it doesn't capture the Cyberpunk genre don't realize it's based on Cyberpunk THE GAME, which it is like 100% faithful to, and not Cyberpunk THE GENRE which is a much bigger,  branchier, and more amorphous thing.

It absolutely nails Cyberpunk THE GAME.

That's probably a fair criticism.  Certainly Tom Chick's review references the wider genre.  The reviewers I mentioned have both presented on the Three Moves Ahead podcast which for a few years was my one of my favourite podcasts.  Here are the reviews:

https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2020/12/15/looking-for-the-cyberpunk-in-cyberpunk-2077/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7a7xx/cyberpunk-2077-review

Certainly I won't let these reviews put me off giving the game a try.  Heck I even gave Fallout 76 a try!

[maxbeedo]

Before jumping into Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I figured I would take a break from that series and try out something different. 

Currently playing The Last Remnant: Remastered, a Square-Enix RPG from 2008 recently updated.  It's... kinda garbage to play.  It's an RPG where you don't get to choose specific actions or get to see XP/Ability numbers after combat, you just command "unions" of units that then each choose their own action based on your overall command, and they level up their skills automatically.  There's not much of a menu at all, and very little about the mechanics or world is explained except for exactly once during a tutorial (which you can't read again). The aesthetic of the game is very Final Fantasy XII, medieval but with magic and tech, which is a plus, but they somehow managed to create an even more insufferable teenage emotionally-explosive teen protagonist who is the dumbest piece of shit ever.  The world itself seems big, and it allows me to explore a lot more than I expected, as when I exited a large zone in different directions it unlocked new areas on the map in those directions, even though the main quest was the other way.  A lot of the sidequests automatically teleport me to the area I need to accomplish them in, which is slightly annoying but arguably an improvement as you get them over with pretty quickly and are teleported back to where you accepted them, so not a lot of wasted travel time.  As a remaster it's not graphically amazing but still has a decent amount of creativity in the races and locations.  We'll see if I end up finishing it.

[Godji]

I've been playing a lot of Yakuza Kiwami too these holidays, and really liked it. It's dense enough I won't chain with another one back to back, but I'll definitely be picking up 0 at some point.
And now, I've just started Death Stranding. It's... a thing. I mean I really love just walking in those beautiful landscapes, it's its very own kind of zen exercise, which makes everything happening around more of an annoyance really.

Also spending soe time with Vermintide 2 again with some friends.

[Pixie]

80 hours in. Cannot stop playing Cyberpunk. So awesome.

[Sssith]

I got cyberpunk and started a character.  Very pretty game.  A bit confusing in the beginning, trying to decide what to do.

Went back to finish Control.  It is a love/hate relationship with that game.  Interesting with quirky puzzles burdened with a fighting system that quickly gets very tedious. 

[Pixie]

My character (left) and the best cyberpunk hottie ever.

[Sssith]

Well, I finished Control.  Overall it is worth playing.  It is nice that the game doesn't treat you like an idiot.  It assumes you can figure things out and I mostly was able to do just that.  I found the fighting to be a bit much and a bit tedious but despite that it was really worth playing.  The two DLCs are pretty good.  I really liked the Alan Wake cross over one. Even though the last boss fight was just stupid and a shinning example of what they did poorly in the game.  The Foundation DLC was nice but just extended the lore of The House a bit further.

Time to concentrate on Cyberpunk now.

[Pixie]

Preem indeed.

[Sssith]

So I have started three characters to get a sense of Cyberpunk.  One of each type.  Interesting how they seem to have different focuses.  The city is really impressive and I am starting to get a feel for the game.

Sadly with one of my characters I keep crashing during one of the battles.  I am not a fan of how the enemies can make you overheat.  Seems to be a really pain in the ass.  Overall liking the game except for those two things.

[Pixie]

Overheating: that's a hacker attacking you. Kill the hacker. Or have fun: you can always make the enemies overheat instead.

There's a perk you can get that will show you the direction of a hacker that's attacking you, too, which helps zero in on them.

Though now that you mention that... it's been a long, long time since anyone used overheat on me. I don't have a cyberdeck installed anymore (I have the Sandevistan instead, so I can bullet time slice people to ribbons with mantis blades), so maybe that means overheat can't be used against me? Not sure!

[Sssith]

I think I am moving ahead with this character.

[Sssith]

So I feel like I am just now starting to get a handle on Cyberpunk.  It is pretty freaking deep.  Lots of choices for builds and augments.  Crafting seems interesting and you have the ability to upgrade the equipment that you use.

Graphics are pretty awesome, and the city is pretty amazing.

Overall the game is damn impressive and I am probably going to loose a lot of hours exploring and playing.  I have run into some pretty bad bugs at times.  In many ways it is a pity that they had to release it when they did.  It seems they made a lot of bad choices in this area.  That said if you can play it on a good PC or one of the new consoles I would recommend it.

[Sssith]

So I feel that I have finally made it out of the beginning of Cyberpunk.  Now to see what the rest of the game is like.

[Pixie]

I am closing in on the end of Cyberpunk (100 hours or so in). What a wild and amazing ride it's been.

And when I finish I will immediately restart. My current character is a nomad who went all in on blades (and later, tech pistols) so I could bullet-time-murder everyone with mantis blades, and I completely ignored hacking. So I want to explore that now... my next character will be a corpo hacker with a much icier heart than my generally-kinda-good nomad.