Gaming

This time I have only been playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate on my Switch. I feel like there is always a lot to learn in that game.

I've been playing Foundry on a shared world with a friend. It pretty fun! Our factory is a giant spaghetti mess that barely works though.

I've also been playing Elite Dangerous. I bought a cheap second hand X52 hotas and I set up head tracking using my webcam and OpenTrack. It's a fun way to fly!

A friend got a Switch 2 with Mario Kart World, so we too played that for a bit. Knockout Tour is really fun, while I didn't like that Grand Prix races have only one lap. I think the highways are better for KT since there's 6 tracks and there's more risk due to the elimination. Fun game tho not worth 80 € (or 90), nor a system seller for me.

The Switch 2 feels like a huge improvement over the original, the new joycons are much nicer and the 1080p screen looks much better. My only complaints are that the screen is an LCD without HDR (not a dealbreaker since it's good enough, but still disappointing when considering the price). The other complaint I have is the battery, as it's too small for the system. Playing Mario Kart in portable drained at least 50 % in around an hour.

I've finished Xenoblade Chronicles X DE and I kinda wish I didn't. The chapter added with the remaster was terrible, it was completely unnecessary, a waste of potential and ruined everything the original story did. It felt like the writers didn't have a plan so they just forced these 3 quests because they had to.

Still tho, the Wii U part of the game was good, as were the other DE changes, so I enjoyed it.

I finally picked up Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, this being a game that's been on my radar since well before it came out because I was a big fan of Jet Set Radio Future back in the day. It's kind of too much like it and not enough like it at the same time? I tried the original Jet Set Radio when that came out on Steam and bounced off it but based on that limited experience I think this is kind of splitting the difference and that's where most of the frustrations come from. Movement is more like JSRF but level design is more like JSR. And the soundtrack seems to lack that variety of some songs being made for the game and others being licensed that kept the monotony at bay. No "Aisle 10" to slow things down for a bit.

I am enjoying it, though, for as little as it sounds like I am. Movement feels good enough that it's making me search for combo lines for the sake of combo lines and at the end of the day that's what's really important about this kinda game.

Also finally finished Zelda echoes of wisdom.

Never would have guessed going in that that would have the most graphically violent last boss sequence the series has ever seen. I beat it feeling like I was the real monster.

I'm pretty happy with $500 in my account.

Ender Magnolia after finishing Ender Lilies. Both are phenomenal games, absolutely loved both. Amazing art direction, fluid gameplay, challenging but not frustrating.

Speaking of Zelda, now that I scratched my itch to play some Metroidvania, I am kind of in the mood for a Zelda binge, too many of those I left unfinished in the past.

Finished playing F.E.A.R. for the first time and am now about halfway through the first expansion Extraction Point. Man, it really holds up incredibly for a 20-year-old game.

The particle effects look fantastic for their age, the lightly destructible environments add a beautiful layer of carnage and the gunplay is surprisingly great for such an old game. Every single gun feels satisfying to use (bar the bizarrely awful assault rifle), with the highlight of course being nailing people to the wall with the famous 10mm HV Penetrator.

The AI is also just as good as people say and it continues to surprise me with shockingly good dynamic behaviour for again a game of this age. Especially the way they interact with the environment in unscripted ways impress me: closing doors behind them as they retreat to wait in ambush or smashing windows and vaulting over to charge you for example.

The horror and story is actually the weak point, at least of the main game. It's all pretty predictable, the horror is fairly mediocre and not even the jump scares really land. I will say it has been better in the expansion so far, though, even if it's still only sort of okay.

But that doesn't really matter. The atmosphere does enough to sell its pseudo horror identity, but the fantastic gunplay across these well designed claustrophobic levels is worth experiencing. It's a classic for a reason and I completely get why. And with it frequently being for sale for like a dollar on GOG it's a must play, I think.

Just make sure to install the EchoPatch!

Slowly making my way through the Mass Effect Legendary Edition after grabbing it during a Steam sale! I only played ME3 when I was a teenager, so it‘s really fun to finally get the full experience.

Trying to beat the highest difficulty in Windblown. It's not going well. I'd basically need to be able to beat the game hitless, which I'm not good enough for.