drahkon

bungie.net At least some good news. Still...the industry is slowly but surely going down the drain

That's a shame. You're going to miss out on something important when playing Returnal then, if you turn the features off.

Which game(s)? Edit: Also...there I was, beating everybody's PlayStation stats and along comes H-o-T to crush me.

During a mostly sleepless night I found this little gem on the Google Play Store. Retro Bowl is obviously an American Football game. You get assigned to a losing team and have to do your best to get them back up to speed and/or just show you're a good coach and get hired by a different team. That's the "story". What surprised me the most is how intuitive and great the controls are. You tap the screen and hold to set the power and direction of the throw (if you wanna throw). You can also tap the running back and he gets the ball. With swipes you can make him dodge tackles. Plays are chosen automatically with a set amount of "audibles" (a quarterback can change plays, just in case you don't know) so there's limited choice, but it works just fine. Kicking extra points and field goals is simple, as well. Set the power via a moving bar and set the direction via a moving arrow. It is so much fun. Not sure if I'm actually amazing or if the game is deliberately easy in the first season, but I won the Super Retro Bowl immediately Got hired by a better team and will keep playing until I arrive at my favorite NFL team, the Greenbay Packers and win it all Paid 1.09€ for the full version which let's you adjust some extra settings like weather and removes ads (which aren't really intrusive). Worth it. Well, I've also been playing Monster Sanctuary for most of the last 6 hours while also watching the Australian Open men single final. Haven't made a lot of progress because that match was amazing. VAMOS NADAL

While everybody and their mother is playing some weird new pocket monster game, I've bought Monster Sanctuary and spent 3 hours with it today. It is monster collecting game with Metroidvania exploration and turn-based combat. And I gotta say: It scratches that particular numbers and stats itch that I sometimes have A battle: You got three monsters and usually fight against a team of three opposing monsters. In this case there was only one Champion. You attack in turns and can choose from a variety of attacks, defensive skills or buffs/debuffs. Have had quite a few tough battles already. Especially when you fight against other people and their monsters. This lovely yeti is a beast of a tank. Comes with high HP and his passive (as seen on the bottom of the screenshot) is quite useful. The skill-tree is pretty extensive and I'm sure I'll experiment a lot because there are easily available respec items. Also found a monster with the following passive: This is kind of op as that monster also shields itself when it attacks. Couple that with my third team member who boast a massive shielding skill for the entire group and regular monsters barely damage my HP. We'll see how long that lasts So far, I'm very much enjoying Monster Sanctuary. It provides a nice challenge, is a weird mix of genres which works surprisingly well and is easy to understand yet provides a pretty deep system of numbers, stats and all that jazz (you can equip monsters with weapons and accessories and buff them with food!). The game doesn't come without flaws, however. It's not the prettiest game. The pixel art is a little outdated and the monsters look a little odd during gameplay (the monster log has some great pixel art, though). The music is kinda boring and the story isn't particularly interesting, either. Also, the map is ass: Anyways, can't wait to spend more time with it and see what it has to offer

Quite a good game. I completed Areas 1-5 and Area X. The latter features some gorgeous visuals and basically everything in the game has an incredible soundtrack. Rail shooters aren't really my thing, so I won't spend anymore time on it but I'd still recommend it. Put on some headphones, sit back and enjoy a relaxing ride.

No joke...it's unacceptable. We tried to complete one mission today and the game crashed 8 times. The last time was right before a boss fight, i.e. the end of the mission. And because the game is dumb and doesn't allow for checkpoints during co-op we would've had to plays the mission form the start. We said "fuck it" and watched a video on YouTube for the bossfight and cutscene.

Which is why we've started Halo 2. It's been great... Mission structure is much more varied, the game looks prettier (which is not surprising, most sequels do), no audio bugs (so far). ...but. The crashes. HOLY HELL, those crashes. In two hours of gaming, our sessions crashed 17 - seventeen!!! - times. First we thought it had to do with some settings or the fact that we used the Windows voice chat (Discord was down for a while) but after looking around on the wonderful internet, we found out that we are not alone with these issues. Co-op seems to suffer from serious technical difficulties which haven't been fixed. This is beyond ridiculous, to be honest. Such a shame that two of the three Halo games we've played so far have been/are crazy buggy... Well...guess we'll just push through. The game's fun, the story is intriguing, and you can still bitchslap your fellow marines. Really hope the sequels are optimized a lot better, though.

Hard to top last month's game. I let out a resounding "meh". I'll pick up the standalone Borderlands 2 DLC which I'll probably play with a mate and give Planet Coaster a try. I'm always down for a few hours of some construction/management simulation action UFC 4, though? Nah...not my sport. Got a text from a mate who's a big fan...needless to say, he's very excited

Banned!

Black + PS2 all the way. If you choose anything other than that, you'll be banned.

(the remaster) Man, what a bad campaign that was. Now, don't get me wrong. I know what it did for the FPS genre on consoles. And by "it" I mean its multiplayer. But goodness me, the campaign is a constant string of repetitiveness. Mission after mission you fight in two or three locations that get repeated two or three times. It's lazy, it's not creative, it's boring. The pinnacle was a mission where you basically just play a previous mission in reverse with one added objective (that, funnily enough, you have to do three fucking times, as well). There have also been a myriad of bugs, mainly in the sound and music department. SFX and songs randomly cut out, either never to return unless we restarted the game, or to come back 20 seconds later. Some gameplay glitches softlocked us. No idea what caused it, but in some missions a completed objective didn't register and we were stuck. Not a good look for a remaster. Normally, I would've abandoned the game halfway through, but playing it in co-op with a mate we were able to look past the glaring issues. I made it my mission to bitchslap at least one Marine in each mission they appear. My mate was horrible at flying Banshees. I was horrible at driving Warthogs. My mate was very trigger happy and killed me many times with the shotgun (most of the kills were unintentional, though, surprisingly). I bitchslapped my mate many times. There was also a glimpse of how the plot could evolve in the sequels. The Flood is a boring antagonist, the Covenant is just all over the place, but the story and twists surrounding Halo were pretty intriguing. Yeah, all in all...very mediocre. We will finish the entire series (at least the FPS games), though

I'd describe it as a roguelite reverse bullet-hell auto-battler. Enemies come at you fast, you kill them via auto attacks (some of them attack in a random direction, some of them in a fixed direction). Level up, add weapons, improve weapons, increase stats, rinse-repeat until you die. It's in early access so not finished, but there's still an end to reach, even it's just an inevitable death. Will be interesting to see where Vampire Survivors will go and how the game will improve over time. For now, it's an absolute steal at 2.39€ (on PC via Steam). There's another game I've finished on my PSVita: Timespinner. A very pretty, small-scale Metroidvania with generic mechanics, that's still enjoyable for one playthrough. And one more for the best handheld ever to which Sony definitely needs to make a successor (): Habroxia 2. I've played the first one and loved it. This is even better. Plenty of improvements make this one a very fun shmup. Will definitely go for the Platinum 8 games in January, so far. Not bad, not bad. Probably won't be able to finish much more, though. Still playing Halo: Combat Evolved with a mate and we also started Nobody Saves The World. Both of which are not very good... Halo is repetitive as all hell. Even back then I would've thought its level design is outdated. It also introduces one of the most boring antagonists ever... Still, there's something to the plot and it's a joy playing this with a mate. We just josh around a lot with the game Nobody Saves The World...so far? Meh Very slow start and an annoying co-op mode make this a game we might drop soon. If one player opens the menu, it opens for both. If one player talks to an NPC, the other is teleported to it. There's a million quests which improve your characters but most of them are just "use this skill a gazillion times". Basically fetch quests with a different coating. And the best part? You need to do them to advance... Not a good first impression. The game does, however, have pretty funny writing. But that's to be expected from the makers of Guacamelee!

First of all: The first part of Ozark's final season is here Secondly: Anybody watching Archive 81? Just finished the first episode and it's incredibly well shot. Really set the tone. Very intriguing, but I hope there won't be any major jumpscares

Sorry, it's in German 1004 hours played, a little less than half of it came from PS5 games. Impressive and it shows what a great first year the console had. Absolutely incredible 22 Platinum trophies. Honestly felt like I acquired less. Not too shabby, though

One of the current PS+ games and actually quite fun. Got the as well But, the game reminded me that as long as there is no nitro-infused boost and the ability to crash other cars I suck at racing games Played the campaign on normal and struggle a bit in some races. A game that has left early access quite some time and got the 1.0 patch on consoles in summer last year. Which means: There's a final boss now. Been playing Risk of Rain 2 regularly with a mate for a while now, we managed to beat it several times. Some challenges are left, so we're not done, yet. Highly recommended if you want to play a frantic rogue-lite that starts quite slow each run.

Sad days. Seems like Microsoft is actually going for a monopoly. Really hope Sony doesn't follow suit and will keep going for smaller acquisitions (which I also don't like very much, but are necessary) and that Nintendo will continue to keep their audience and stay themselves, even if I've fallen away from them. One thing that would be great: Turn that company around. Throw out those pieces of shit and rebuild.

Love it.

Not yet, because Deep Rock Galactic entered the PS5 scene. What a glorious game this is. I'd describe it as a co-op horde-mode-objective-FPS. From simply mining minerals and collecting crystals or eggs to escort missions or destroying a huge enemy there's a lot to discover. There are four classes. The Gunner is basically what the name implies. He shoots things. Can also deploy a shield which is very helpful when swarmed by enemies and set up zip lines for easy access. The Driller is basically what the name implies. He can drill through stuff (and shoot things). The Scout is basically what the name implies. He scouts things via a long lasting flares (everyone has flare sticks you can throw, but they don't last very long) and can swoop around via a grappling hook (he can also shoot things). The Engineer is basically what the name implies. He engin...nah, doesn't work. He can build a sentry gun and platforms (shooting things is also possible). I've been running the latter for most of my playtime just to support and create easy access to minerals. 14 hours in two days. I'm not joking One of the benefits of being on sick leave, I guess. The game shines in co-op. It's been an absolute blast with two of my mates. One plays as the Gunner, the other as the Driller. It's a little annoying without a scout, because the long lasting flares are incredibly useful, since the caves you're exploring are quite dark. It's still so much fun, though I've already put it in my gaming list for 2022 as "finished", because I've completed every type of mission and played through the first mandatory assignments, but there's no way I'm stopping here. There appears to be a bit of an endgame which I have yet to reach. If you have the chance to play this (it's on PS+ and on Gamepass, as far as I know), DO IT.

It's a new dawn, it's new day, it's a new life year for me us, and I'm we're feeling good. Well, that didn't really work. Anyways, here's the 2022 edition of the Gaming Diary thread. I'll start: I've finished two games on my PSVita already. And both from my backlog. First one: It was a PS+ title back in 2014. It's actually a PS4 and PSVita game but I'm counting it as completed on the latter device Aaaaand it was mediocre. A tower-defense game that relies more on quick actions than actual strategy is not a good tower-defense game. Second one: Oh yes, it was finally time to play this one. A launch title for the PSVita back in 2012. I bought it, played it for a bit but haven't finished it until today. Can't remember why I stopped, but something must've gotten in the way back then. It's definitely the worst entry in the Uncharted series, but still a solid game. Pacing is a little weird and the PSVita features overstay their welcome, but it's Uncharted...it's fun Also: It looks absolutely gorgeous. For a game from 2012 on an outdated handheld it still holds up 10 years (!!!) later. Framerate dropped to low 20s at times, but with a lovely overclock plugin it managed to stay at 30fps for most of the game. There's some great music, as well. Yeah, it was a fun ride Next up: Killzone: Mercenary on...you guessed it, the PSVita It was a PS+ game in 2015 and it's gonna be my second Killzone game after Killzone Shadow Fall, which I barely remember.

Holy cow, those semifinals. I hope the final tonight will be just as high quality as the matches yesterday. Can't wait

Started with Google Sheets, but for the diagrams I've used Excel as the designs are nicer to look at. I'll probably work out an Excel spreadsheet for 2022. Nothing professional, though, as my Excel skills are basically non-existent. I do wanna add a short "one-line review" section

The year's almost over and I doubt I'm going to finish any more games before 2022 begins. Which means...WAKE THE FUCK UP, TIMMY! It's time for drahkon's gaming statistics. "..." To start with: How many games have I played and finished? Take a guess, everybody. HERE IT IS: Alright then. Next question: How many games have been from my backlog? Phew, next up: Which gaming devices provided most games this year for me? And now the big one: Scores! A few thoughts on my gaming year: selling the Switch was my best gaming decision, closely followed by buying a PS5 (which happened in 2020, but still ) - Nintendo lost me long ago; their new games don't bring me a lot of enjoyment, anymore, to the point where I don't want to spend money on them Sony has crushed it this year with PS5 games - stellar experiences, further enhanced via 3D Audio and the DualSense ohhhhh boy, the DualSense - I'll say it again: haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are the next-gen feature and a game changer the XBox App on PC is ass - Gamepass is a nice service, but I would never pay full price for it; I will always prefer actual ownership of games The Gunk is one of the worst games I've ever played so is Remnant: From The Ashes, but it is slightly better - I also got the Platinum, for whatever reason speaking of: I got 22 Platinum trophies - my favourite? Outer Wilds, which also gets my "favourite game I played this year" award! And to end this post, here's my GOTY:

Surprise

Killed a few Visionaries, unlocked a few powers and thankfully there's a way to keep items between loops. That was the one thing that worried me at the start. So far so good. Have a lot of fun just exploring and killing Visionaries without using any of the information you can find. The game is very easy, though. Hope it'll change but given that I have a suppressed weapon and can make myself invisible I very much doubt it...