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Unpacking

I re-upped my XBox Game Pass for a month since it was offered for only $1 for the first month. And decided to play Unpacking, which just released the other day.

It's okay. It's charming and kind of relaxing, but it's extremely short. I'd say there's only 2-3 hours maximum of gameplay. I enjoyed the story it weaves through the items you unpack. There was a recurring item of this stuffed animal that was in every level. As the years pass, it gets more and more ratty looking. But I got almost excited seeing an "old friend' pop out of the box.

But yeah, it's short and not worth the current price tag ($22.79 CAN on Steam). I might buy it on Steam if it goes on a big sale, like 75% off to replay it on Steam for the achievements.
 
Hitman 2016

I played through the tutorial and the first level. First, the good. The game feels a lot bigger than the last Hitman game I played, which was Blood Money. The levels are bigger, there are more options for assassinations, and each level is much more populated. The game also openly encourages you to replay each level and find all the assassination methods and secrets, so even though it only has six levels, I'd imagine this game will offer a lot of playtime.

However, it is not without flaws. I don't like it when later installments of games remove features that were present in earlier games. In Hitman's case, there are gameplay features from Blood Money that are not present, such as human shields, detailed combat stat tracking, etc. The sheer amount of options for kills was also a bit overwhelming; I'd find all these different things I could do, but have no idea how to string them together in a coherent way to achieve my objective. After playing the Paris level for several hours and getting nowhere with my sneaking, I decided to go loud.

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I'm sure with more playthroughs I'll be able to learn the level and find better strategies, but honestly by the end I was happy to just get it done.

Anyway, overall it's good. The removed features are disappointing, but it's still the same Hitman experience at its core, and that's good enough for me.
 
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Superliminal

This was neat. Lots of disorientating puzzles and a game really screws with your perception of reality. I had it on my wishlist, but it was also on Game Pass, so that was an easy way to play it. It's short, but enjoyable.

It actually reminded me quite a bit of Antichamber, an older Steam indie game with a lot of mind-bending puzzles.
 
I think like 3/4s of the BEST gameplay in Bethesda games is finding mods you think are interesting.
This one in particular fee!s obviously rushed. Finding a good replacement for the speechcraft and lockpicking minigames took a while but it's been well worth it to make a game I paid 50 dollars for 15 years ago finally good
 
Fallout 76 will be my last bethesda game tho. It's embarassing how much basic movement they haven't been able to do in their own games after publishing dishonored. I shouldn't have to jump over a fence like super mario bc you can't climb over anything
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Fallout 76 will be my last bethesda game tho. It's embarassing how much basic movement they haven't been able to do in their own games after publishing dishonored. I shouldn't have to jump over a fence like super mario bc you can't climb over anything
But mantling is haaaard to cooooode ;_;
 
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Breatheage

Or maybe 30 minutes of it. I kept hearing it was "Subnautica in space." And on the surface, that seems to be the case. Unfortunately, the AI in your ear is constantly fucking annoying, talking way too fast, and 99% of the time is just a bunch of useless jokes that get old fast. There's little indication of what you're supposed to be doing. At one point, you're supposed to build "dumb crap the developers are making you build" (paraphrasing there) and then you waste material building it...for it to do apparently nothing. What's even the point of doing that?

Getting around space is slow and tedious and it's not like Subnautica where there is at least an interesting environment to look at or creatures or fauna moving about. Plus, there don't appear to be any spots along the way from Point A to Point B to refill your oxygen, so you're fuck out of luck.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Breatheage

Or maybe 30 minutes of it. I kept hearing it was "Subnautica in space." And on the surface, that seems to be the case. Unfortunately, the AI in your ear is constantly fucking annoying, talking way too fast, and 99% of the time is just a bunch of useless jokes that get old fast. There's little indication of what you're supposed to be doing. At one point, you're supposed to build "dumb crap the developers are making you build" (paraphrasing there) and then you waste material building it...for it to do apparently nothing. What's even the point of doing that?

Getting around space is slow and tedious and it's not like Subnautica where there is at least an interesting environment to look at or creatures or fauna moving about. Plus, there don't appear to be any spots along the way from Point A to Point B to refill your oxygen, so you're fuck out of luck.
The "crap imposed by the developer" is just a crafting tutorial. After that you're actually kind of left on your own to discover things to build that are actually useful.

There will be parts later that do let you refill your oxygen, and even more places to build crafting bases, and even after that, vehicles/ships. In fact, even before you get all that, you'll be able to build Oxygen Stations (which look like hot air balloons in space) that will let you build your own places to get more oxygen. And of course there are upgrades to find and build that make your own oxygen tank last longer before empty.

If you decide to get back into it, look for:

Condoms
Gum
Odd places you could jam the chicken into (especially pipes or sparking electrical circuits).

The first little area where your ship crashed doesn't have much in the way of mining, you'll mostly be salvaging stuff out of wrecks (bash open crates, steal luggage, that kind of stuff). Be careful of areas where there is visible ice, as you can freeze to death there (and the process causes ice crystals to form on your helmet which will obscure your vision and make it even harder to get to safety).
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I'm sorry, what is this game about again?
You are a passenger on a space liner on the way to your grandfather's funeral, when for unknown reasons the ship suffers a massive explosion and crashes into an asteroid belt. From there, it's a survival-crafting experience much akin to Subnautica. But with a very, very strange and acerbic sense of humor.

You also have an immortal pet chicken for some reason, and doing strange things with it often reaps you benefits.

 
You are a passenger on a space liner on the way to your grandfather's funeral, when for unknown reasons the ship suffers a massive explosion and crashes into an asteroid belt. From there, it's a survival-crafting experience much akin to Subnautica. But with a very, very strange and acerbic sense of humor.

You also have an immortal pet chicken for some reason, and doing strange things with it often reaps you benefits.

I gave it a second chance. Unfortunately, my previous game hadn't saved. So I redid what I'd done before, and I did set up a oxygen station at one point. Then I got stuck, specifically remembered to save my game this time, and intended on coming back to try again...

...only to discover that once again, my game wasn't saved. Fuck this game.
 
I gave it a second chance. Unfortunately, my previous game hadn't saved. So I redid what I'd done before, and I did set up a oxygen station at one point. Then I got stuck, specifically remembered to save my game this time, and intended on coming back to try again...

...only to discover that once again, my game wasn't saved. Fuck this game.
When they said "Subnautica in space" I wasn't expecting them to include the glitches too.
 
Grounded

Got back into playing this recently, after seeing a video of someone building a base inside one of the soda cans. Kinda wish I could convince some people to play this with me, because while it's still in Early Access, there's a lot to do in the game. I wish I was better at building bases, but I often don't have the patience to build them like some players. I think I mentioned this before, because it's the same as Subnautica. I'll build a base that is practical and efficient for my needs, but I won't go out of my way to build anything fancy or complicated. But if I were to play it with someone who DID like building more complicated bases, I'd happily collect the resources and follow their instructions or blueprints.
 
Grounded

Got back into playing this recently, after seeing a video of someone building a base inside one of the soda cans. Kinda wish I could convince some people to play this with me, because while it's still in Early Access, there's a lot to do in the game. I wish I was better at building bases, but I often don't have the patience to build them like some players. I think I mentioned this before, because it's the same as Subnautica. I'll build a base that is practical and efficient for my needs, but I won't go out of my way to build anything fancy or complicated. But if I were to play it with someone who DID like building more complicated bases, I'd happily collect the resources and follow their instructions or blueprints.
I have some steam ducats left over from when I converted my Suddenlink gift card into 'cash' by dumping it into my steam wallet. I'll take a look at it after work today.

I think it'd be nice to log in to play with someone and not have them already be 10 steps ahead of me in the game ;)
 
I have some steam ducats left over from when I converted my Suddenlink gift card into 'cash' by dumping it into my steam wallet. I'll take a look at it after work today.

I think it'd be nice to log in to play with someone and not have them already be 10 steps ahead of me in the game ;)
Heh, I mean, I know my general way around the game, but I'm still not great at it. Especially when it comes to melee combat abd blocking. Spiddrs are still terrifying as fuck.

I'm probably being generous yo myself when I say I'd be 2-3 steps ahead of you.
 
FFXIV (still)

So, in this game you can play as a Bard. And one of the things that Bards can do is perform music, like, you hit notes on a keyboard (qwerty or otherwise) and music comes out.
(There are also 3rd party tools to help with this, but we don't talk about those.)

Either way, I'm getting in the Xmas spirit, and have now figured out 3 different 4-song playlists that I can do with my bard, and each playlist features a different instrument (though all finish with Last Christmas, because I can).

I'm waiting until after Remembrance Day to unleash my newfound "skills" on the world/server, but after that... the dulcet tones of "All I Want for Christmas is You" will be coming to Eorzea.
 
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