Finally got around to checking out No Man’s Sky on Switch 2. It runs and looks surprisingly well. It’s been a long time since I’ve played No Man’s Sky, so about 30 minutes of this video is me running around clueless before I realized you had to activate the map to find the hermetic seal.
Awhile back I picked up MLB The Show 25 on the Switch on sale to check it out. As you can see in the comparison video I put together, the Switch version is ugly as heck, but at least it runs. Hopefully there will be a Switch 2 version for The Show 26 with upgraded visuals.
If you’re looking for a baseball fix on the go, I guess The Show 25 on the Switch is an option, but I’d only pick it up on sale.
I spent some time today trying to dial in a new mic and audio mixer setup. I think I finally have it sorted out, but I didn’t realize how quiet it was during my Guild Wars stream.
Guild Wars Reforged: 002
I continued my playthrough in Guild Wars by knocking out a few more early quests, and I think I got through the tutorial section of the game. For awhile the game was feeling pretty linear, but once I got through the intro it finally started to feel like an MMO where I was probably picking up more quests than I’m going to keep track of at once.
I’m still struggling to get used to the targeting system, it feels dated, but I think that’s the point. Reforged isn’t really a remaster or anything, but my understanding is it at least added some quality of life improvements.
Mass Effect Andromeda
I also made some more progress in Mass Effect Andromeda. In true Mass Effect style probably 50% of the stream was spent chatting with companions.
I haven’t been very good at updating my blog lately, so I’m going to try to revamp it once again. Lately I’ve gotten back into streaming just for fun. I’ve found that streaming or recording myself playing games forces me to focus a bit more. Like most people, I think my attention span has started to decrease, and I’ve found myself skipping through dialogue in games or just trying to rush through things. Streaming has allowed me to slow down and take the game in, even if very few people are watching.
Some of the games I’ve been streaming lately are:
Project Motor Racing
Mass Effect Andromeda
Guild Wars Reforged
I hope to keep up with streaming / getting videos up onto YouTube, and hopefully I’ll see if I can kickstart this blog again as well.
I appreciate you stopping by! Let me know what you’re playing these days, I’m always looking for more games to check out.
The Washington Post recently published an in depth look at Animal Crossing New Horizon’s economy that I wanted to share.
It’s crazy to read about the “get rich quick” schemes and intense trading players are doing to bring in massive amounts of bells. Here I am, forgetting every week to even buy turnips (I don’t want to time travel), and struggling to pay for my second house upgrade. I’ve fallen off from playing regularly pretty quickly, unfortunately. It’s relaxing to jump in every now and then, but I’ve never been any sort of power player. It’s been about a week and a half since I’ve last checked in, and despite setting a reminder to buy turnips this past Sunday I still missed my chance. It’s probably for the best, because even had I bought them I’d forget to sell them before they rot.
Anyway check out the linked article, it’s a good read, even if you’re not a power player. It’s a window into another world.
Just a few moments ago I finished Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, the recently released standalone Uncharted adventure by Naughty Dog. As someone who is relatively new to the Playstation platform (I fooled around with a PS3 but didn’t end up owning one very long) I’ve never played an Uncharted game. I dabbled in the first and third games via Playstation Now, but neither caught me. I especially didn’t like the first game as I died a lot by falling off of stuff within the first hour or so which frustrated me enough to get me to quit. Shortly after getting my PS4 Pro I ended up acquiring a copy of Uncharted 4 on sale, but never felt the urge to put it in. I had heard nothing but good things about the game, I just never had the time to give it a try.
When The Lost Legacy got announced I didn’t think much of it, but I happened to see the game at Redbox this week and decided to rent it. Early on I was amazed at how good the game looked presented in 4K with HDR. The lighting in the game is incredible and the character models look great.
I was also impressed by the quality voice acting, facial expressions and how the characters moved around inside the world. Everything looked and sounded so lifelike, it was easy to get lost in the world. As I continued on in the game I found myself repeatedly in awe of the landscapes presented to me. I guess this is something Naughty Dog is known for, as I’ve heard people say they grew fatigued at just how often Uncharted 4 would effectively nudge the player almost saying to them “hey, look how great everything looks!”. The Lost Legacy even addresses this at one point where a character says something to the effect of “I’m running out of things to say at these” which was kind of amusing.
I played the game on the easiest difficulty setting (don’t hate me) and never found it overly frustrating. Some puzzles were a bit of a pain, but the game seems to know just when the player is starting to get frustrated and uses NPC’s to offer hints when things slow down. In some instances the NPC will even step in and complete a step of the puzzle themselves which I enjoyed. The combat was not hard at all, and I never once died during a combat sequence. The only thing that killed me repeatedly throughout the game was the climbing and jumping. The climbing for the most part is intuitive, but for some reason at random times my character would just plunge off a cliff even as I knew exactly where I was trying to get to. At other times Nadine would get in my way and I would bounce off of her to my death. This was annoying, but luckily the game has a really smart checkpoint system. In fact, after some deaths the game automatically restarted me past whatever obstacle had killed me. I’m not sure if this is a result of playing on the easiest difficulty system, or if it’s like that across the game, but I truly enjoyed it.
The story for the most part was unremarkable, though it picked up in pace and weight as it approached its rather thrilling conclusion. Even as I wasn’t enthralled by the story, I was invested in the characters mostly because of the excellent voice acting and interactions throughout the game. I enjoyed listening to their conversations and looked forward to seeing Chloe and Nadine’s relationship progress.
I was able to finish the game in just over five hours, which is shorter than the average completion time most likely because of my difficulty selection and the fact that I breezed through many of the combat sections unscathed. The production value of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is superb, right down to the end credits (probably my favorite credits since Portal). I’m excited to check out Uncharted 4 after seeing this adventure through.
If I were into giving games numbered scores, I would probably rate Uncharted: The Lost Legacy a 5/5.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about NieR: Automata (mostly from Giant Bomb), but I hadn’t gotten around to checking it out until this past weekend. So far I’ve been nothing but impressed with the game, which features one of the strongest opening segments in all of video games. I was blown away from the start, and I only hope that the rest of the game lives up to the intense opening sequence.
I’m looking forward to playing more, but at this point I’m only creating a backlog of games that will be practically impossible to conquer (Fallout 4, Gears 4, Halo 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Persona 5, Tales of Berseria, Prey… not to mention ongoing games such like Battlegrounds…)
Watching me player PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS is probably like watching paint dry. I tend to make a beeline for a building, stock up on whatever’s inside, and then find somewhere to hide in a cowardly manner for as long as humanly possible. This strategy has worked in my favor more often than it seems like it should, as I’ve often gotten lucky and ended up well inside the circle early on. In tonight’s game I scored 3 kills, my highest yet, but unfortunately I’m still terrible once I get out into the open as the circle contracts toward the end, and this is where I always meet my fate.
As boring as it is to watch, I love playing this way. It’s incredibly tense. In tonight’s game I heard someone pull up in a vehicle, get out and open the door downstairs. The footsteps got closer and closer and I felt sure they were going to burst through the door and kill me at any moment. Then, for whatever reason, they turned around, went back downstairs, got into their vehicle and drove off. My heart was racing as I stood up to watch them drive away.
The next person to enter the house wasn’t so lucky. Unfortunately, I eventually had to leave my shelter (I probably could’ve stayed awhile longer) and work my way toward the new safe zone and my ultimate death.
I played a little bit of the latest Forza Horizon 3 DLC, Hot Wheels and had an absolute blast with it! I didn’t know a lot about the expansion going into it, and mostly assumed it would just feature Hot Wheels cars, but they went all the way with it, right down to the orange plastic tracks that loop and turn in wacky ways! There’s so much attention to detail, and I especially love the mechanical sound the launchers make as you approach them (it sounds like a rollercoaster). I’m looking forward to checking out more of the game this weekend!
Gumballs Plays Games 