Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2024?

On 10/1/2024 8:27 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

 September always feels like such a short month. There's just so much
going on that the days just whiz by. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, at
least it was long enough for me to get some gaming in.
 Case in point:
  Whereupon I list the games
---------------------------------------
   * Still Wakes The Deep
   * The Last of Us Part 1
   * American Truck Simulator: Arkansas
 

None of those hold any interest to me, TLoU maybe as I liked the show, but usually those horror games I don't enjoy.

What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2024?

An awful lot, I had to get my $12 worth from Gamepass after all, which I played all month and just expired
TL;DR:
**** Diablo 4
**   Starfield
***  Roboquest
**** Lies of P
**+  Yakuza: Like a Dragon
**   No Man's Sky
**   Remnant: From the Ashes
**   Another Crab's Treasure
**** Mass Effect: Andromeda (ongoing)
**** Diablo 4
I had an itch to play some Diablo 4, and got Gamepass for it as I thought I probably wouldn't play it for more than a month or two at most which would still by less than buying it.  I really enjoyed this. Once. I beat it in less than a week.  After that, continuing to the next run, I didn't really feel I had anything to look forward to on the same character, and playing another felt really similar.  It's a bit too streamlined for much fun after that.  I could see the apeal of it on mobile, but the online with not saving your progress (xp money and items yes, but not where you are and monsters being respawned) in the middle of a dungeon would really crimp the mobile style of short stints. It feels like they sacrificed stuff on both ends, it's not quite right for mobile and it's not quite right for PC.  Still worth playing once if you use Gamepass or it comes way way down in price.  $12 seems to be about right.
**   Starfield
It's o.k. There's a few slight chuckles here and there, and surprises, it just feels boring after a bit.  It's got a bit of issues as well, biggest to me is the many many load screens when you go anywhere, often all in a row.  It crashed/froze on me a few times as well.  Space combat felt o.k., not as good as a game focused on that, though there's sort of bullet time for space combat, there isn't for ground combat which really needs it, or I'd prefer something like VATS. I could see myself playing it much longer if I'd bought it at launch and max price, but it's mid at best, and trying it out I have little interest when there's so many other good games. I don't recommend it, but if you're more interested in the RPG aspects it's fine.  As usual Bethesda fare it probably needs a ton of modding, if there's a way to get rid of all the load screens that would help a lot.  Consider buying it at cheap/deep/free if that sounds like it would appeal, or again give it a try on Gamepass.
***   Roboquest
Although I don't care for the super bright cartoon colors, mechanically this is a very good Roguelike FPS. It had just the right balance of difficulty that it got my heart rate going, but didn't overdo it (like I feel in souls-likes some times) Variety of weapons and classes was good, and progress was good.  I would get tired of other games and come back to the game for a few runs by the end of the month.  It works well for a 'between games' 20 minute play.  I consider it's $24 price a bit on the high side, but again probably well worth it for $12 I probably won't buy it as I got very close to the end boss, but would be happy to add it to my collection and play again if it came out free or in a bundle with other things.
**** Lies of P
Wow! what an amazing souls-like! Really interesting story, great visuals, fairly good mechanics.  I'm especially surprised as I thought I was just done with souls-likes.  I'd actually rate it above Bloodborne and Elden Ring, but not any of the actual souls games.  It took me under a couple weeks.  I could see getting one or two more plays out of it, nothing like souls/EF, about on par with Bloodborne for replayability, though that took me maybe 6 weeks for the first playthrough. Only downside for other non-souls veterans is that it's pretty damn hard. I'd probably pay as much as $20 for it if I hadn't already beat it.  I'd probably need to get down to sub $10 at this point though.
**+  Yakuza: Like a Dragon
I initially really got into this.  Endless cut scenes sparsely interrupted with some fairly easy weird 3d turn based combat, where positioning actually matters.  I found myself chuckling a bit at the over the top gung-ho protagonist and the trouble he gets into.  After somewhere between 10-20 hours of this, it started to get a bit boring as going anywhere meant either spending a good half of my money on a taxi ride or going through many very repetitive turn based fights. If it were back when I was into turn based and there was little else to play, I would've loved this game.  Now it's just o.k. Might be worth it very low, $6 or less, just to get through the initial story.
**   No Man's Sky
I liked this more than I thought I would.  Possibly more interesting than Starfield if you just like wandering around scanning and collecting and crafting without a lot of NPC conversation, I don't know if it has space combat either or how good that is.  Not really my thing, I can see the appeal though.  I didn't play it for more than a handful of hours, I got off planet and to another and didn't feel like doing more wandering.   Can't say I'd ever pay for this.
**   Remnant: From the Ashes
Soulslike FPS.  It didn't really work for me, I found it very confusing.   It seemed like bosses were extremely hard and you needed multiplayer to deal with them as there's also a ton of minions with them.  I tried multiplayer, first time I was carried through maybe 3 bosses by this one person.  That feels too long, I would've preferred it to end after 1 like souls.  The next time I was at a boss with exploding minions, and it was impossible to focus on the boss and keep the minions from killing me, someone joined which made it slightly better, but I kept dying, then he'd die, we'd start over.  He tried a different tactic of running away, I tried to follow him, which kept me up, but eventually he died, and I was being followed by the boss and a couple exploders, and I died to the explosions right away.  I gave up at that point.
**   Another Crab's Treasure
Yet another soulslike.  Too cartoon/flat colors, but people were saying it's great.  Much platforming, which I hate in 3d.  Fortunately mostly no damage/death from falling, though there are a couple with a death floor beneath them.  Overall wasn't that interesting to me.  Can't see myself playing it ever again.
****  Mass Effect: Andromeda (ongoing)
Another surprise for me that I like this one so much. I didn't like #2 as much as the original and #3 just seemed to go on the full FPS wagon, which I didn't like.  Andromeda seems to have brought the RPG back into it, and seems to have a good balance of exploration and combat, I haven't really figured out mining or crafting yet though.  It's probably a bit early to give it 4* as I'm not far into it, but I have our first outpost set up, and am enjoying it.
Gamepass is over, but I found Epic had Andromeda for $8, so I'll picked it up there, my 2nd game I've bought from them after Outer Worlds (or was it 3rd as I had some Epic Bucks at some point I think I spent, I don't remember on what though, maybe it was Outer Worlds.) It goes into the EA app anyway which picked up my install so I didn't have to download it again or start over.  Cheaper than Gamepass for a month, and I might be playing it for quite awhile.
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-Justisaur
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