Finished Halo this weekend. I played a lot more than I anticipated I would. I was totally gripped. For a FPS newbie Halo was a perfect starting point for me. Engaging story, corny enough to not be totally serious but at the same time not silly.
I have some complaints, but it’s a very solid game that still feels modern “enough” to still work. The length was perfect, beat it in like 10 hours. Very solid weekend game!
I have a “ritual” that after finishing a game, I try to watch a speedrun of it. It’s a great way for me to combine my interests, casual gaming and speedrunning. Knowing the game gives the speedrun more depth. Especially the struggle in the Library for me, and the speedrun just skips a lot of it on Legendary whereas I played on Normal. Pretty crazy stuff.
The darling genre of the Indie studios, Konami’s not so secret weapon on the GBA and DS. I am of course talking about Metroidvanias. Koji Igarashi’s winning concept has left Konami and entered the Indie scene and Kickstarter.
When I first saw Iga’s newest project, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, it looked like the 2.5D lovechild of Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, but animations looked stale and did not impress on me. I waited over a year before playing it because I told myself that I wanted to play the PC version. Last fall I could not wait anymore, I had heard so many good things about Bloodstained so I bought it on PS4. It did not disappoint. I wasn’t wrong in my first assessment, it really is the lovechild of Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, which I really enjoy since they are my favorites of the Igavanias.
The shard mechanic is ripped straight out of Aria of Sorrow’s Soul system, which is my favorite skill system in the GBA games. Rest of the game feels very Symphony of the Night, the gothic aesthetic, music and last but not least, controls.
Miriam the protagonist is a shardbinder, which means she can absorb shards from demons and gain their abilities. This does though slowly turn her into a shard lore-wise. The story is engaging and balanced but not very deep. It’s very Igavania to say the least. The rest of the cast have great personalities and most of them are memorable like the swordsman Zangetsu from Curse of the Moon-fame.
There are many Easter eggs for the initiated, mostly from SotN. Which makes it enjoyable and adds to the nostalgia. The game is cryptic, the map is big and full of secrets all over the castle like bosses and overpowered weapons.
Also, the music, it’s very SotN without being a rip off. Which is a huge plus in my book. The music accompanied the game excellently and I don’t have much to complain about.
The one point that I’m not overly happy with is the graphics and the animations. It looks okay, but animations are pretty stale, event hough better than the first look of the game. Despite that, it’s an very enjoyable game that no metroidvania fan should miss.
I never owned a Xbox console until 2016 when I bought a 360. Therefore I have completely missed Halo. I didn’t have any interest in games in first person view until 2012 when I played Far Cry and Dishonored. I have never been a huge fan of shooters in general.
I have since then played Destiny 2 and other games, so that made me look at Halo, and here I am ready to try it out!
Gonna start with Combat Evolved. Reach will be a later game for me.
I hope I’ll enjoy it. If not, there is always co-op!
Newer consoles are spoiling players with screenshot features for sharing on social media platforms. Even htough I’m no big proponent of social media, I occasionally like to share a screenshot from a game, when starting or beating a game. This is not possible for older consoles like Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Gamecube or Sega Genesis. A universal capture button is my thought, the sharing aspect will be a normal upload to social media of choice. I have therefore been thinking of a solution that would solve this problem for all consoles, using a capture card and a wireless bluetooth button.
With a compatible capture card and a Flic 2 button I got this to work in OBS when the OBS window is in focus. This works very well, the only problem is that I don’t have a way to capture my older consoles since I don’t have them close to the computer. I don’t want to chuck a long HDMI cable over the floor every time I want to start gaming and eventually take a screenshot.
I have there looked into the possibility of using “cheap” Chinese HDMI extenders to route the signal via the network to my computer. That’s is one solution, the other on is to buy a cheap computer, like a NUC or something and have in the TV bench just to take screenshots closer to the consoles.
When I have the hardware to take the screenshots from my sofa, I’m gonna look into some way of feedback for screenshot taken, either a sound or a blinking light, maybe a push to the phone.
This would be an ideal way to get better screenshots for this blog for console games I want to feature in the future.
I have updated the site with a better structure for the categories. I have also bought a new computer, so I’m hopefully gonna post more different things here, since I don’t have to write on my phone anymore. I separated the writeups and the other stuff.
A lot of things have happened since I last posted. I have like I said, bought a new computer. I have also purchased an audio interface and new headphones. Now I can play bass without annoying my girlfriend and the neighbors. I also have the option to record ideas and possibly songs in the future. I have a lot to learn when it comes to recording. I also need to derust my bass playing-skills.
I recently started listening to a lot more death metal again, especially Entombed. Thanks to my friend Jason! He also inspired me to pick up the bass again!
On the gaming front, I got the PS5 on release and I love it. I played a lot the first couple of months, but have been in a rut lately, at least when it comes to PS5 gaming. I played through Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Platinum), Spider-Man: Remastered (Platinum), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Platinum), Ghost of Tsushima (Platinum), Maneater (Platinum) before slowing down. So I have already gotten my money’s worth. Might do a writeup on some of them in the future.
We got an LG OLED CX on the Black Friday sale. I’m very happy with it, especially with the PS5 and also my retro setup, since it’s very compatible with my upscaler. We had planned to buy that model on Black Friday so when our old TV died the same day I got the PS5, I was both sad and happy at the same time. Had to play on my computer monitor for about a week or two.
PS5 on my computer monitor, since the TV died the same day I got the PS5.
When it comes to retro gaming I have gotten a OSSC v1.6 which has audio over HDMI, which means I now have a solution that can take and upscale all my retro consoles to my OLED. I also have a HDMI dongle for the Nintendo Gamecube booked which hopefully arrives April 30th. So I hope to play a lot more Gamecube in the future, since this device opens up the possibility for digital to digital 480p signal, so I don’t have to bother with an interlaced signal, really excited about that. I just need to figure out the optimal setup when it comes to switches, since I don’t have anymore free HDMI ports on the TV.
My current retro setup, the OSSC v1.6 to the right being the heart of the setup.
That’s pretty much what I have been doing music and gaming-wise. Been focusing a lot more on what I enjoy, so in addition to gaming and music, we have started taking long walks so get outside more. This have been helping me a bunch, so I’m feeling much better in these pandemic times.
I have stuff to do. Should probably prepare, getting PS+ to get those cloud saves and such. Need to remove the PS4 Slim and move some other consoles around so the PS5 fits.
It’s gonna be exciting to test the PS5 on our old TV now and then see the difference when we get the new one.
Probably gonna have to remove the door of the TV bench to not kill the PS5 by accident. Don’t know where to store the door though.
i haven’t been playing “for real” for a long time. I played The Crown Tundra for a weekend, but I haven’t been hooked in a game for ages.
I’m afraid I’m hoping too much on Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla to be the game that gets me out of the rut. Which makes it even more tricky that I don’t know if I’m getting a PS5 soon or if it’s further away. I don’t know if it’s worth it to start playing on the PS4 or to wait for the PS5, since I don’t know when I’m getting one.
I have a Xbox Series X waiting for me, but I’m not gonna claim it. Going to opt for the PS5 instead, even though it’ll be difficult to get one despite a pretty early pre-booking.
I did my second attempt to get into the rogue-lite/-like genre. This time I tried Dead Cells, a game that I have been looking at for a long time. A side-scrolling action game that’s more up my alley than The Binding of Isaac, which was my first attempt.
The mechanics are super tight in Dead Cells. The game feels great to play. The reasons why I havent played it earlier is because I don’t get the grindy nature of rogue-lites/-likes. I need something that is failing me in, a story of an interesting world to explore. There are slot of exploration in Dead Cells, however it’s the same areas randomly generated to different configurations.
The collected cells that have been spent on different permanent perks and possible items, are the only progress that’s saved after dying. Which I noticed isn’t enough for me. I need something intriuging me, like a story or interesting environment to explore.
The strength of Dead Cells is the tight mechanics which it nails. Unfortunately, the progress getting to newer areas itself being the only prize for the accomplishment, which you are robbed of every time you die. It’s not for me.
Perhaps I’m a lazy gamer, but I want games to give me something more than just a distraction to pass time.
I have now set up USB to ethernet-dongles for both our Switch docks. Meaning there are no modern consoles in the apartment with internet capabilities that aren’t connected to the Network by cable.
I beat Super Mario Sunshine for the first time this weekend, this time for the Switch. Not being the biggest fan of 3D Mario, which I usually am quite vocal about, made this more of a nostalgia trip rather than an enjoyable moment.
That aside, Sunshine is a charming game. Charming but very frustrating… And it’s like the first appearance of one of my favorite Nintendo characters. Pretty much my favorite, Bowser Jr.
I do like the game, it’s my third favorite 3D Mario after 3D Land and Odyssey. Playing Sunshine made me very aware of the facit that I playbgames for story and exploring nw worlds. With a story as thin as a thread and also an ending that I already knew about, all that was lett was game design and mechanics. Salt it’s not the games strongest points. The best part of the game is the cozy atmosphere and unique charm.
I knew I needed to collect 50 Shines to be able to complete the game, so that’s what I aimed for. I did however, not know that it was a set of particular 50 stars. When I got 50 stars, and the for the time, aptly named Corona Mountain did ger available, I was disappointed. I wanted the game to end. I did also get stubborn and was not about tonquit. So, I powered through, collected all remaining stars I needed and conquered Corona Mountain.
What a shitty section Corona Mountain is. A Long trail of Lava where there is a boat that doesn’t burn Up when in lava. But IF an obstacle would look at it, it would just give up and let Mario melt in the lava.
After the lava section, the final boss was the only part left. I knew what to do, but the mechanics being kind of unfair at times, it took longer than I want to admit.
When the boss was beaten and the credits started ro roll. All I wanted to do was to put the game on the shelf and not play it anymore. Maybe follow Mario and Peach’s examples and to just watch the sun set. No more Sunshine.
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