Games
Mad Max (2015) - ★★★½
I’ve been looking for signs of an alternative ending for Mad Max since last night when I finished it in vain. Maybe happy Hollywood ending spoiled me, I couldn’t just let it end like this. But maybe it’s supposed to end like this, as other pointed out in Reddit and elsewhere; maybe that’s the point. Mad Max is a tragic story of the end of the world, and a man ending with it. To that extent, the game is brilliant.
The game 🎮 is played as Max from a third-person view angle, on foot or in his car. As the game progresses, you advance and upgrade mostly the car but also Max himself, with major upgrades locked until you finish certain missions. I played all of those, main story ones and side ones, and enjoyed them all. The mechanics of the game are responsive and polished for the most part (some of the racing missions force you to use a different vehicle, and those drive like a wet sack of potatoes shot out of a tar-loaded circus cannon); combos land with crunchy satisfaction, car chases end with dramatic explosions with the help of Chumbucket… Chumbucket! Let me rave a bit about the best character in the game, which made the whole story for me.
Chumbucket is a mechanic (“black finger”) hunchback you’re introduced to early in the game, and he’s with you to the end. The voice acting by Jason Spisak is the best in the game, hands down. In my opinion, Chumbucket also has the best backstory too. He gives you tips and direction in the game, acting both as a guide and as an extension of some of the most popular car weapons in the game, like the Harpoon and the Thundersticks.
The game has plenty of those backstory moments, which makes it an excellent supplement to the world in the Mad Max movies, and being able to drive wherever you want and learn more about different sites is an excellent bonus if you love the movies. Max will comment about the different relics you find in the world, and you’ll get more bits and pieces about “The Fall.” Everything from the “big nothing” to the storms, from shipwrecks to enemy camps, oozes with Mad Max style. There were times I stepped out of the car, climbed on a hill somewhere, and admired the view. It’s one of those games you can sink into.
If you like the Mad Max movies, and you have a taste for action post apocalyptic games, you won’t be disappointed. This 2015 title is available on most gaming platforms including macOS and Linux costs less than half of a full AAA game.
Dungeons of Hinterberg (2024) - ★★★½
Dungeons of Hinterberg [DoH] is a chicken soup for the type of mental cold I feel I’m recovering from during these crazy political times. On the surface, it’s another hack-and-slash game with some puzzles sprinkled on top, but as you go deeper into its dungeon, its balanced tempo starts to drift you away.
The game’s high point wasn’t my latest mini-boss fight or when I finally figured out the puzzle in the Jelly caves; it happened when I was sitting next on a wooden bench on top of a cliff, a wooden hut with a straw roof behind me with a couple of cows ruminating grass.
Luisa, the protagonist, sat her sword down and admired the view. As she breathed in the fresh air, I also took a long breath in my chair and let my mind rest from the long list of emails I needed to catch on. Later, when Luisa was ready to go to town and make new friends, I was recharged enough for a little walk outside myself.
DoH is not an excellent action RPG, a visual marvel, or a deep story you’ll remember for months. There are other games for that. Rather, It’s a game about experiencing life. The monsters in the dungeons and the puzzles are well-crafted metaphors for conquering both mental and physical challenges with the help of friends, a good night’s sleep, and well-honed skills you’ve learned in the meantime. The game’s mechanism works like a calm therapist, reminding you that breaks and self-care go a long way in helping you later when you pick up your sword (keyboard) to slay monsters (another set of instructions you need to write, perhaps a piece of code).
Taken in like that, in little dosages between other pressing projects at work, you got yourself an inviting relaxation routine you’d want to adopt. This game is a treat, meant to be taken slowly and with care. Don’t rush it; just relax and enjoy.
While I’m thinking about my blog: soon, a new category in the navigation bar - 🎮 games.
I’ve been using Backloggd for a while, and I understand how to use it better to record progress and mirror my posts here with images. #videogames #gaming #games #blogging #reviews
Pacific Drive (2024) - ★★★★
Pacific Drive is what would happen if Herbie and Subnautica had a child. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen this particular blend of survival-suspense-story mix in a game since Subnautica, and that’s saying a lot.
Instead of a submarine, you drive a station wagon. Instead of aliens underwater, you encountered anomalies on the road. The idea is similar: scan objects, research, get materials, and upgrade. But the mechanics of the game revolve heavily around your car, which you can upgrade (and fix), and the sci-fi story is more engaging with good voice acting.
As a person who got his driving license around the same time the game takes place, the long solitary drives bring back memories, especially with the excellent soundtrack, played as stations on the radio. These fun runs can quickly turn into suspenseful moments, especially during the night. The game also messes with your head with all kind of quirks, and I found myself wondering if i was encountering a bug in game or something planned more than once.
For those who seek challenges, there’s plenty here. Too many, in fact, so I had to tune some of them down. For example, the game won’t let you save mid-drive, and if you quit, you lose all of the stuff you collected. I can understand this as a difficulty option, but this is an unfair punishment if you have to quit the game on a long mission, which can take 2 hours or more.
It’s too bad the game doesn’t have official Linux support, as I believe this game was built for a certain kind of Linux geeks, but it seems to work OK with Linux (or Mac) with Proton enabled. If you’re a sci-fi person who likes suspenseful games with a dosage of crafting, don’t pass this one up. You won’t regret it.
Ads in games soon in fully-priced AAA games
In-game ads are a natural progression of advertising, especially as the gaming industry is expected to grow to $583 billion by 2030. In-game ads are a natural progression of advertising, especially as the gaming industry is expected to grow to $583 billion by 2030.
Unfortunate and maddening but true. In a world where you pay a premium on top of premium to get ad-free experience, paying “only” full price is not enough.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed the company is considering putting ads in traditional AAA games — titles that players purchase up-front for around $70 apiece.
Games are expensive. Making games is expensive, too. But AAA games always bring in more money than ever, and there are other ways to get people to pay for games. I’m worried about horribly-placed-immersion-breaking ads coming soon to a game near you.
Helldivers 2 Won’t Require A PSN Account On Steam After Massive Player Backlash
This reverse on account linking follows a horrible time for Arrowhead’s devs and community managers, who were forced to manage a massive digital war across Twitter, Reddit, and Discord. The CEO of Arrowhead spent most of the weekend apologizing on Twitter and talking to angry fans.
If Helldivers 2 is popular enough to take over whole towns, then the number of angry comments these developers received is in the thousands. Some people bought the game on Steam in countries where they can’t open an account with PlayStation Network (PSN), which means this forced update would rob them of a favorite game and $50 - since Steam does not refund games that were played for more than 48 hours.
It’s a sweet victory for the players; I just hope the game developers, who have been phenomenal, will be able to recover from all the negative reviews.
I’m playing The Beast Inside 🎮, and I’m at the point I hate the most about games such as these: running away from a monster you can’t kill but can kill you. And when you die, you have to start again from the last save point, going through the whole thing over again, giving up any progress you’ve made.
As I was rage-quitting this time (identified by mashing Alt+F4 and getting up hurriedly with a mumbled cursed in my native tongue), It occurred to me that this sad clichè game developers force on me is the real boss I have to face. Not just in this game, but in all the games of this genre.
“Heh, Maybe I should just play Alien Isolation then,” I muttered to myself, and then, rubbing my beard: “You know, this is not a bad idea…” by which I mean of course it’s a bad idea. A horrible one.
For those who haven’t heard about this game, Alien: Isolation is all about escaping a boss you can’t kill, and one of the biggest bosses as well: the Alien from the movie Alien (a Xenomorph). The Alien, which was praised for its AI in the game, has the ability to search for you by sight and sound (and smell?); it kills you in seconds if it finds you. There’s nothing you can do. The whole game is built around this principle. So, if I manage to win this game, games that only have a segment of this kind of annoyance like The Beast Inside will be a walk in the park.
Image credit: rockpapershotgun.
I decided to uninstall World of Warships again. It’s just too much of a negative experience playing multiplayer (among other things), especially when Helldivers 2 is such a good example of how to do things right.
I want to play Mass Effect (legendary edition), but the keyboard controls are a challenge. I have to play with an open browser: “How do you heal?” “How to crouch behind cover?” “How do you tell a squad member to use an ability on a given point?” feels like the game is intended for controllers.
Helldivers 2 (2024) - ★★★★
Let me tell you about MaxiPaine11 (pretty sure that was his name), a random person I found playing this game this morning.
He was waiting for me next to a flag post in the smoldering remains of an outpost. A timer informed us that we had about 2 minutes to hold the spot until the flag would be raised. In the background, I could hear the ominous electronic robotic chipping somewhere nearby - a patrol mission, probably.
Maxi looked busy checking something on the other side of the post next to a vending machine (somehow, these always survive) when I saw them approach. I informed him on the radio, but I wasn’t sure if he got the memo because the next thing I knew, lasers were flying by my head; I leaped to a prone position, took out my sniper rifle, and looked down the scope at the big one at the back of the pack, a meanie with chainsaws for arms. I took my aim slowly, carefully, and squeezed. Well, that got their attention.
There was a THUMP sound nearby. “Democracy needs firepower!” I heard Maxi claim. Soon, I also saw what he called for - a machine gun - as he started raining bullets at the oncoming bot army. That was good; I didn’t know the guy, but his strategy complimented my sniping cautiousness just fine - BOG! I got one right in the head.
The timer ended, and the objective was met, but we had a hell of a fight ahead of us getting out of there to the extraction point. Drop ship after drop ship, the bots kept on coming faster than we could reload our weapons. Things were about to get out of hand. I had an idea. A crazy one, but this is a crazy game. I called in a minefield, focusing right behind us, missing the advancing robots entirely. I got a “?” from him in chat. That’s all he could do before I heard him scream “My leeeeegggggg!!!” as a well-aimed laser blasted it off. My situation wasn’t much better.
I told him to follow me, as I was going back, right into the mines I planted. Then I asked again, and once more, for emphasis, switching weapons to my assault rifle and aiming to his left to show him I was right behind him. He saw me standing between the mines, and then it clicked. He was following me. We rushed through my minefield (as carefully as possible) and ran into the forest, the bots right after us.
We opened a gap between us and the bot army as their fastest killing machines rushed after us right into the mines and exploded. We kept running until we found a big cliff to hide behind. I called for supplies; he called down a torrent to cover us. Good thinking. I checked our map, and well, shit, the extraction point was where the bots came from, right back through the exploding mines, or we could go around it, through what looked like a river.
I turned to him and saluted; Maxi did the same. This time, I followed him - he chose the water. On the other side, Looking ahead, right in our way, was a bot factory surrounded by many glowing evil red eyes. Maxi looked hesitant. And then I died. It happened so quickly.
The bots were everywhere. Maxi didn’t waste time and ran for cover before calling in reinforcement, which was me, of course, as another patriotic solider: “Democracy has landed!” I claimed as I got out of my capsule, right into the depth of an intense fight. We were surrounded. bots from behind, bot-camp ahead, and water that would slow us down to a crawl to the side. It was time to call for additional help, so I shot an SOS beacon to the side. “Thanks,” he managed to voice-prompt me; “Affirmative,” I responded.
But additional reinforcement never came. After many deaths and limbs lost, we managed to get to the extraction spot and escape by the skin of our teeth. This was medium?? Apparently, it was. I saluted Maxi one more time and told him I’ll be back later. Democracy might never sleep, but it does get hungry. Hopefully, I’ll run into Maxi again. Or Someone else, who knows. Every time is a new adventure.
Gamespot went to Poland and interviewed the people at CD Project Red about Cyberpunk. This is an eye-opening clip (about 30 minutes long) exploring how a gaming studio returned from the abyss of shame to the spotlights.
Week 46
This was the week of the analog journal 📓, and I discovered two unexpected benefits.
First, writing by hand is much slower than typing, and if I want my handwriting to be decipherable, I need to slow down even more. This means writing much less. Because I write only a few paragraphs, they need to mean more. This is a good exercise for my hyper-brain, forcing it to slow down and think about what I have to say.
Second, There’s no editing, no spellchecking, no revising. This means that when I close the journal, I’m done. No going back to it to add stuff or edit later. This is a sense of closure that is missing from a digital journal.
On the wiki, I updated my Micro.blog page . It includes more of the philosophy of Micro.blog (the way I see it) with an illustration.
I wanted to create a short video for Lillihub, a new Micro.blog client, but it didn’t come out as good as I wanted. I’ll probably make a page in the wiki for it.
Another exciting addition is computer games 🎮 reviews on my blog. For this, I use Backlogg. The games page is broken for now; I need to improve my knowledge of Backlogg and get all the parts working. Nevertheless, I’m excited to include these reviews. I spend plenty of time on games, and reviewing them as I review movies makes sense.
Sorry for littering… I found a video game review site, backloggd (inspired by letterboxd), which allows RSS feed. This means I can use it to review games and post to my blog. Still working out some of the issues.
World of Warships (2015) - ★★½
On my Gaming PC, I renamed World of Warship’s desktop shortcut to Sad Addiction. That’s a good summary of what I think about this game.
It is a solid, tactical, and balanced game for the most part. Each ship class you choose plays differently, and there are differences between different ships of the same class. You can upgrade and add special weapons and tactical bonuses to your ships, choose different captains, and more. Technically, the game is stable, the servers rarely lag, and the graphics are excellent. And, being a Wargaming game, it’s also free to pick up and play.
Here comes the but.
Being a multiplayer online game, your fun from it depends mostly on who you play with. Unfortunately, this usually means bad experiences are more common than good ones, at a ratio of about 3:1. What’s worse, the developers understand most of their gamers are teenage hornballs (or at least they act like ones) and target that constantly. Game updates are explained in video clips presented by sexualized women. Avatars are anime and even hentai-oriented characters. Many in-game events emphasize stuff from Megadeath to Transformers. So yes bro, there’s no surprise that the gaming experience often feels like a bad high school reunion.
On the technical side, the game includes huge patches every month or so, with 70% of things you won’t care about (Sailor Moon captains anyone?) or won’t affect your gameplay directly (a ship that costs 60 US dollars). There are also other questionable practices, like an annoying Windows system notification that warns you if you switch away from the game to a different program for a minute or a broken reporting system that colors your name in the game pink (Oh no! Not pink! What would friends say?!) for the most idiotic things, like choosing to play a plane carrier, since some players hate this class of ship so much they report you if you play them.
Since I already commented on the price of some of the ships: the game is free, yes, but that means Wargaming will do whatever it can to get you to buy stuff. A premium account, a season pass, a ship with an advantage in the game, etc. In fact, if you play this game long enough and get to high-tier ships, it becomes nearly impossible to progress without spending at least a little bit of money to move up.
So, if this review reads more like a vent, it’s because it is. I love the game, and I hate the game.
Games teach you hard life lessons
Today I beat the Fire Bellowback in the Sigma vault in Horizon Zero Dawn. The boss’s weapon: stressful mash-button panic that makes me rage-quit a game and not pick it up for months, if at all. This time, I emerged victorious.
Games 🎮 can teach you life lessons. Hades, a game you have to try right now if you haven’t, (seriously, stop reading, buy and download it, and come back after you’ve died several times) is a masterpiece lesson in never giving up. I don’t think I would beat the Fireback if it wasn’t for the daddy issues in Hades (If you play it you’ll understand).
Facing fears is a lesson no game taught me better than Subnautica (turns out I have a phobia of being under seawater). A game about accepting death? Try What Remains of Edith Finch. Regrets and leaving a better world behind you for those you learn to care about? Try RDR2. In my opinion, the game succeeded where many movies failed.
That’s not to say there aren’t some terrible games out there (actually, I’m not a big fan of HZD, I think it has many issues), but even the bad ones can have some gold nuggets with things to teach you to become a better version of yourself.
When I was a teenager, my parents told me I’ll “grow out” of playing games when I’m older. I’m glad that’s one of the items on the “you won’t do or be X when your older” list, for sure. I don’t think I’ll ever stop playing games or cherish what they have to offer.