That’s part of it sure, but it just… doesn’t feel right. Someone else pointed out how it is almost an “alternate universe Max Payne 2” with how it feels narratively like a more follow-up to the first game than the second. It also just has a very different tone and style in the writing. It doesn’t have that Remedy vibe. Everything from the characters and main story to the TV bits, which feel very different compared to Lords and Ladies and Adress Unknown.

It’s by no means a bad game, and the action bits are awesome. It just doesn’t feel like a Max Payne game to me.

Me too. Don’t think there is a single relationship I’ve been able to maintain in my life.

Ah, that makes sense! Damn I wish Itagaki was still with us. That might make me actually wishlist this game, though. I played Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time recently (also by Soleil, the last game Itagaki was involved in) and was pretty positively surprised by it.

Gives me Ninja Gaiden 2 vibes, only with less aggressive enemies.

Remedy are doing a connected universe, kind of like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. People are calling it the Remedyverse. They’ve started blending their IPs into each other, even IPs they no longer own like Max Payne and Quantum Break (where they just change the names pretty much so “Alex Casey” becomes “legally distinct Max Payne”). It’s very cool and really comes to its head in Alan Wake 2, which really is enhanced quite a bit by playing the other Remedy games in order first.

Max Payne 3 isn’t bad at all - it’s a very tight 3rd person shooter. It’s just that it was made by Rockstar and not Remedy (Rockstar had bought the IP after Max Payne 2). So Max Payne 3 doesn’t really “feel” like a Max Payne game. It’s still a good game though, I just kind of wish it was independent of the Max Payne franchise.

Man, old paper magazine PC Gamer… Strong nostalgia overload. Getting a copy was always the highlight of the month, that era of like 1995-2009 was really the golden age of PC gaming.

It definitely is time for Max Payne! Well, unless you want to wait for the RTC Remix mod. And it’s the first step into the wonderful Remedyverse too, culminating in the fantastic Alan Wake 2!

Both MP 1&2 are honestly amazing, and they are very short games too so not really a huge commitment compared to some modern titles. The comic book style slideshow used instead of cutscenes was also ingenious as it has let the game age incredibly gracefully.

I think TALKER Expanded is in a stable and decent enough state to take a little break, which I sorely need honestly. Been burning out a bit on it lately. So this week I will finally be playing some games.

First on the docket is the Lake House DLC for Alan Wake 2. I was in the middle of playing the DLCs when I got sidetracked into this project. After that I’ll get into one of my Christmas games, either Chrono Ark or The Banner Saga. Might play both depending on how long they are and how much of a break I need. Leaning on starting with the Banner Saga.

Do it! The story and writing is still great and the gameplay holds up surprisingly well for such an old game (not that it will feel modern, but it’s not a chore to play).

It’s something you can do, but not necessarily something that works well. On the Lemmy side stuff like hashtags and @s tend to look pretty ugly and out of place, and from the Mastodon side the interface really just isn’t built to handle and present threaded forum-like conversations well.

While it win the Indie Award, I wonder?

Dark Souls will probably be great, and I’m also very curious about Pokémon HGSS as that has a special place in my heart.

Well… kinda but not really. The room-placement is only a small part of Blue Prince though and I think turning it into a roguelite was pretty innovative.

Funny story, Tonda Ros actually hadn’t heard of Betrayal until Blue Prince was well into beta testing. These things happen. The true inspiration for it was a choose-your-own-adventure/puzzle book by Christopher Manson called “The Maze”. Manson actually contributed with the art for the paintings in the Gallery in Blue Prince.

Okay listen. I know I haven’t played it myself but… Isn’t Arc Raiders just another fucking extraction shooter? How the fuck does it beat Blue Prince for most innovative gameplay?

It’s your funeral, pretty sure the Steam version still comes with SecuROM DRM - if it even launches. No clue how that DRM plays with Linux, either tbh.

Get it from GOG, download the Echo Patch and make sure to play the first expansion too (which is included), called Extraction Point. I think it’s even better than the base game actually. Definitely DON’T play the second expansion, and in fact probably just pretend the series ended after Extraction Point.

The game absolutely holds up, still plays like a dream. One of the best FPSes of all time for sure, great combat with good AI and fantastic gunplay from most of the arsenal (apart from a strangely anemic assault rifle). Also looks remarkably good for its age - some of the distortion effects especially like bullet traces during Bullet Time or shockwave ripples from explosions look surprisingly good for a 2005 release.

You can also jump through some extra hoops to make EAX audio work but it’s a bit of a headache.

“Spiritual successor to F.E.A.R.” was all they had to say to get me on board, but my backlog is still too large to pick it up unless on deep sale.

Ooh, I haven’t watched a Christopher Odd LP in a while! That’s nice and short too I think I’ll watch that today. Thanks for the suggestion!

Trepang2 is high on my wishlist, but that’s about all I’m familiar with on this list. Anyone else can comment on any of the rest of the games? Is this worthwhile?

Still barely gaming as I’ve been spending my time on my mod making project instead. I’ve been playing Chaos Zero Nightmare a bit on my phone though and it continues to be a guilty pleasure. Can’t say I condone gacha monetisation, can’t say I love all the character designs, can’t say the story isn’t terrible and the English translation is amateurish. All that being said, the roguelike deckbuilder gameplay is actually just really good. The dopamine hits of unlocking rare card variations during runs and making new builds work just keep me coming back.

I did end up buying two new games for myself on the Steam Sale as a Christmas present: Chrono Ark and The Banner Saga. I’ve had my eye on them for a long time, and so I’m looking forward to getting to a point in the mod making where I can take a break from it and actually play some games.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is a surprisingly amazing DS game where you hold the DS in portrait mode like a book and control your character with the stylus. I played it this year and was very positively surprised by it.