Gangbeasts Reupload

I'll be keeping the old video around, as there's different audio in it. I had to cut more stuff for the reupload to be able to find a decent point to sync the audio, I didn't do myself any favours when we recorded this episode, and an as of yet other video.

Gangbeasts

Gang beasts is an interesting title, I played it a long time ago on my own and didn't really see the appeal. Thought it was just a physics simulator and it might be a laugh to play with a couple of friends. I played a couple of rounds with Devyn and he was irritatingly much better at it than I was. The game is just complete nonsense, it doesn't really have a goal other than not die- and by extension kill everyone else, or at least watch as they try to figure out the controls and kill themselves.

The audio on this one is super out of sync, recording it was kinda a spur of the moment thing and I didn't do myself any favours with syncing the audio. I'll be reuploading another one, but this will stay until that happens just so you can see it- if you wish.

Streets of RAGE

Another video, this one can't be abandoned as it's just a one off - LOOPHOLE. Harry, an old friend of mine, joins me for this video. In his first online appearance he destroys everything I worked so hard to build in the world of streets of rage.

Dark Souls 2: SOFTS

As a few of you might know, I'm big into my Dark Souls. I love doing dumb challenge runs, I thoroughly enjoy getting the achievements and the false sense of superiority those give me certainly help. For those of you that don't know, Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin is a re-release of Dark Souls 2. SOTFS contained some lore changes/clarifications shuffled around some enemy & item placements and included all 3 pieces of DLC. It's a shame that this version needs to exist in the first place, I'd of rather Dark Souls 2 of worked in the first place, or better yet another game of this style set in a different universe - Bloodbourne. Again, it's one of those situations where I'm happy it exists because if it didn't we'd of got a slightly less than ideal Souls game.

Getting Scholar was a pretty good deal for me, since I had never played any of the DLC. The upgrade to directx11 didn't really do much for me, it looked a little nicer but art design has always been Dark Souls strong point- not graphical fidelity. I briefly want to touch on the new boss fight that is added to the base game - the update that was added even if you didn't purchase the SOFTS. It's terrible. It's a really boring fight, lore wise - I'm really not too sure about what it added. Dark Souls 2 was always kinda a let down in regards to the story. It feels more like Dark Souls fan fiction, hopefully DS3 will solve some of the stranger story discrepancies that have cropped up due to DS2 pretty much rewriting how some core features in the story work.

I really enjoyed the departures that the DLC gave you from the main story, it does link into to the larger story a little bit - with many of the last bosses referencing events from the main game. It's refreshing to just experience these worlds that feel very Dark Souls. I know this has been a short one, but I've talked about DS to death- I just wanted to get my major thoughts on it out in the way in time for 3.

Bloodbourne

I've had my PS4 since late November last year, I picked up Little Big Planet 3, The Uncharted Collection & Bloodbourne. I don't really plan on talking about the other two a lot, since I don't have enough to say to warrant a write up - plus this is a Bloodbourne post. So I'll say this, Little Big planet 3 is fun, I only ever play it with my friends - I doubt I'll ever complete it - the amount of DLC is insane and it all costs too much. Uncharted is a pretty standard cover based shooter, but getting 3 games I've never played free with my console isn't something to complain about.

With Dark Souls 3 so close it's obviously time to start talking about Bloodbourne. Keep in mind that this is based of my experience quite far into it's launch- mainly the loading time patch.

I often spend a lot of my time watching Let's Play's or reading up on the lore of the Dark Souls & Bloodbourne lore - Smarter people than me have put the tid-bits of information together to understand the larger picture of the universes but building your own head cannon you're playing is a very satisfying experience. Playing Bloodbourne had me asking a lot more questions about the world than DS1 or DS2 - mainly because the setting in general really appealed to me. The Gothic Lovecraftian atmosphere was seriously my jam - it has to be my biggest compliment to Bloodbourne. The sound design really gets me good too, I can't compliment it enough it terms of how the game world feels and sounds.

The biggest change to the gameplay VS your standard souls game is the speed of it, it's a much much faster paced game. Healing is quicker, attacking is quicker and dying is quicker. Personally, I find this change to make the game more difficult. I'm much more accustomed to the slower more deliberate play style of the Dark Souls series, Some bosses in Bloodbourne feel like they have moves that are designed to hit you no matter what, as this instalment of the game features something called the regain system. This gives you a small window of opportunity to recover HP after being hit by attacking an enemy. The game punishes you for thinking before you act, waiting for a sane time to attack isn't something that you'll find yourself doing too often - particularly in the old hunters DLC. This isn't a bad thing, the community seems pretty evenly split in regards to if this makes the game easier to play or harder. I'm too old to have the reaction speed required to keep up with Bloodbourne, but I do hope to have a screenshot of all those sweet sweet trophies at some point in the future.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the game up until this point, I'm now working my way through the end game hard mode content. Unfortunately, the PVP aspect doesn't really come into it at all for me. Fighting another player just takes far too long - it's so easy to heal and so hard to punish someone for doing so that many fights just end up being who can parry the other person faster - if neither of you are lagging into the dirt that is. It must be said that I had a much better time with the PVP in Dark Souls 2 than I've ever had in any of the other games. Sadly, the NPC's - whilst cool - just don't appear enough. There isn't enough talking to these guys, they all seem like interesting people, but they have nothing to really say after you've got their one or two story dialogues.

If I was forced to compare DS1 to Bloodbourne I'd have to say DS1 wins out. I love the story and setting of Bloodbourne more than DS1, but the actual moment to moment gameplay is superior in the older games I think.

Told ya

Fallout 4: Part 4 - Summary

Fallout 4 is the best Fallout since they've moved onto 3D. The changes are all positive ones, removing the skill system is a shame - it makes the game less RPG-ish. It's improved in so many other areas that losing the skill system doesn't hurt it as a game, it hurts it as an RPG - but that doesn't make the experience any less enjoyable. All the Fallout trademarks are still there, it has brilliant writing, the main story is pretty interesting and you're largely rewarded for exploration. The voiced protagonists aren't a problem - they're voiced well. Sadly, it does mean the dialogue is less varied. I've still got so much more exploring to do in the wasteland, and if the DLC is anywhere near the calibre of old world blues then I'll lose my God damned mind.

It does have it shortcomings, if only because I want the existing features to be improved. My only major concern is that I hope the next instalment, if we get one, doesn't drift further and further away from an RPG and become more shooter orientated. There's also the standard laundry list of problems that plague these huge open world games in general, and the quest breaking bugs are coming out in full force this time round.

If you haven't got it, I would super recommend.

Fallout 4: Part 3 - Settlements

Ever since Fallout 3 was launched people had wanted a settlement mod, the entire setting of Fallout really begs for that kind of bartering system. It was later modded in in mid 2009. New Vegas received the same treatment in late 2010. Both systems, were both well implemented within the confines of the GECK and whatever witchcraft the Gamebyro engine runs on - but they were obviously jank as fuck. Roll on Fallout 4.

With Fallout 4's "settlement" feature being baked in the core gameplay, you'd think it would be a lot better. For the most part, the system works. It does what it promises to do, and you can't really fault it for that. You will sometimes find yourself fighting with the controls to try and get a particular item placed exactly where you want it - but it mostly works. People have managed to make some pretty interesting settlements with the limited tools you're given, you only need to Google Fallout 4 settlements to see the crazy nonsense you can get up to. Sadly however, the settlements feature isn't exactly what I of hoped for. You can't build every single item that's in game (although with some mods to do get access to a lot more) and the "running" of a settlement amounts to very little in the long run. It boils down into maintaining happiness, setting up supply lines & quests.

Settlement happiness is influenced by how much many beds you have, how much food and water you have, your security level and how many lights you have. If you happiness is too low, you'll lose control of it. Occasionally, your settlement will be attacked by raiders or one of your settlers will reveal themselves to be a hostile synth. Making sure your defence is higher than your food + water will lessen the chance of these encounters, normally though your settlers will just mow them down anyway.

Most the quests you'll get will be running to settlement X to kill enemy Y and this "helps" whatever settlement you got the quest from. I don't mind these quests, as it's XP and it normally means exploring a location you haven't been to before. I'd rather have this than not, but it's shallow and uninteresting.

My biggest gripe with the system however, has to be the supply lines & issuing settlers to do particular tasks. Supply lines basically involve you tell a member of your settlement to physically walk to another settlement you own to share resources between them.That part is fine, it's clunky as all hell and it becomes a nightmare when you try to supply line more than 7 or 8 settlements together. I'd much prefer a pop up menu where I can just assign all that stuff in one fell swoop and not have to visit each one and try to remember who's assigned where and the like. The bigger sin out of the two however has to assigning settlers jobs. Once the GECK is out this is the ONLY mod I NEED. To assign a settler a job, you need to click on the settler in question then click on what you want them to do. After doing so, there is literally no way to tell who has a job and who doesn't. Unless they're doing it. I've taken to console commanding in a certain type of hat and just making everyone with a job already assigned wear that hat. It isn't an elegant solution, and I pray someone can mod a fix in but Jesus it's awful. When your settlement has 15 different people running around there's just no way to manage it in any meaningful way.

In brief, there's just not enough depth to the system. It's like they had the ideas, but just didn't implement them in the right way. The good news is, they're close enough that mods should be able to bridge the gap.

Edit: since writing this, a new beta patch has been made available. It now shows if what a settler is assigned to! The collective community belly ache has solved that particular qualm.