I got sidetracked this last week. The plan was twofold: finish Chrono Ark (first ending) and finish Ninja Gaiden 4 to get ready for the DLC that dropped a day ago.
Instead I got completely hooked on Rise of the Ronin. It’s been a hot minute since I played some Open World Slop and it is hitting me just right. With all the shit going on right now it’s been pleasant to have some mind numbing collect-a-thon gameplay, at least thus far.
The comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima are very natural to make, but honestly I’m personally preferring Ronin. GoT wins in graphics and presentation, but the combat in Ronin is a lot more fun and deep. Both use stance switching in a sort of rock-paper-scissors system, but Ronin has a lot more skill expression given that the stance relationships only matter defensively. You counter the enemy stance while parrying, but you’re free to use whatever when going on the offensive. I find this much more satisfying than the GoT system of “pick the right stance and win”, and Ronin also has a lot more active skills to use, especially when you start chaining stance and weapon switching mid combat.
In terms of writing I am still fairly early in the story, but I like the use of authentic history and real historical characters and one thing again where I prefer Ronin over GoT is that there is a bit more humour, levity and charm to the characters. GoT is fine with its writing but everything is so serious and dour all the time and delivered in an almost monotone way that it just wore me out over the playthrough.
Just finished Silent Hill 2 Remake. Really enjoyed it. Time slowed down as I played it, the game isn’t that scary coming from games like RE7, but the atmosphere and the trauma stories are really something. Medium from Bloober was similar in that way. The gameplay was fun too, never overstayed its welcome.
I feel they did creepy rooms and underworld better than Alan Wake 2 did it. Not sure if it’s fair to compare them, but parts of it made me feel how AW2 didn’t go far enough in some of its sequences.
UE5 sucks though. Lots of noisy and shimmery graphics and fps at times dips to literal slideshow on PS5.
I just found Voxel Eras
Stellaris. I somehow ended up buying all the DLCs I was missing, and now all other games have been put on hold.
Core Keeper. They just had a big patch with a new section and biome. Started fresh save to run through it. Fun game. Still desperately needs an option or mod for “prevent ability to kill farm animals”.
