Finished my Main+Extras playthrough with about 12ish hours.

Bully was a mediocre experience, with a few laughs, and some great nostalgia moments.

The gameplay is subpar, feels like a collection of quick time events and simple mini games. It hasn't aged well.

The characters, writing and missions were really creative - that was the most enjoyable part.

7/10

It was so cool playing The Messenger and Sea of Stars back-to-back a few weeks ago. I thought The Messenger was pretty good but not great (probably an unpopular opinion) but Sea of Stars was absolutely phenomenal. I love turn-based RPGs and this one exceeded pretty much all my expectations. Also, poor Garl :( I'm so glad he gets to come back for the True Ending.

Speaking of RPGs, I've seen you mention the Trails games a lot. I haven't played a lot of JRPGs but I definitely want to dive into the genre. Would you mind giving me a rundown of that series? What does it play like? How hard is it? How are the stories and characters? How much of a time commitment would it be to go through all of them? I saw a remake of the first game was announced recently so I thought it might be a good time to add the series to my backlog.

— 09/02/2024 9:07 PM
Did errands for the kitchen lady and hide booze for the english teacher. MAde it into town and won the boxing championship. Preps tried t get out of paying me 1000 bucks so they gave me a coselation prize... a lighthouse. Feel I did alot better with that

Game crashed on me and there some wonky controls for the skateboarding. Also finding that the music overlaps with the audio and really like the some subtitles. With these issues still enjoyng the game and getting some laughs out of it
— 09/03/2024 7:47 PM
Not much today just did some jobs around the area
— 09/04/2024 9:47 PM
took pinky on a date, started the bike races and egged tads house
— 09/08/2024 9:27 PM
okay had one more session:

Defeated the preppies and reached the third chapter

So enjoying bully for what it is however there are some annoying outdated design choices which hampering the game for me. The big one is a lack of either an autosave or a universal save (i.e. save anywhere). My game has since crashed a extra two more times (in the last session). Luckily the first I had early on so didn't lose too much but the second I lost the last of the bike races and kart race so will have to repeat. Not sure the cause but it's putting a damper on the games fun.

The good however is I think this showed that it was possible to change the settings of the GTA games and it still worked. It's got the same style of humour as the old GTA games. Bit hit and miss some parts feel outdated but unlike Sunset overdrive I feel the humour can stand on it's own. Missions are short and work itself into the time frame between classes. The time functionality works well and punishes in a non determinant way for truancy (still possible to do things without the people getting in the way). I hope I can get through the game without losing too much progrss cause I am enjoying the game and looks I've made decent progress already in the game

Regarding the constant crashing, I would suggest getting the patch below. It fixed my crashing, also you can change FPS for smoother experience

https://github.com/CookiePLMonster/SilentPatchBully/releases

Daily Challenge - 2024-09-09
Score: 203 / 300
🟪🟪🟪 🟩 = 89 | R | Emily is Away
🟦🟩⬛ ⬛ = 31 | S | Dead Rising 4
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 83 | P | Diablo II: Resurrected

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2024-09-09
Score: 188 / 300
🟪🟪🟪 🟥 = 80 | S | Emily is Away
⬛🟩🟪 🟧 = 45 | R | Dead Rising 4
🟩🟩🟦 🟦 = 63 | P | Diablo II: Resurrected

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Hi! It's always nice to see a new blog, and you have a post style really similar to mine so I really enjoyed your review. Screenshots are great and you actually convinced me to introduce them in my next review, and you also scratched the itch for a VTM playthrough.

You mentinoed Arcanum, if you tolerate very old and clunky bird-view party cRPGs is a really unique game to play. The game is set in a steampunk setting where classic fantasy race live and are exploited by factory owners, and mages wield great powers but are discriminated since their powers can uncontrollably blow up everything randomly. A very unique setting that wasn't replicated in any other game, if I remember right.

Hey! I really appreciate the words and the reply, thanks for stopping by! I checked out your blog as well and I had a great time reading them, I can definitely see the similarities haha. Yeah, I wasn't sure about screenshots at first but the review ended up being super long with the whole gameplay section so I thought it would help break up some of the words.

I'll definitely look into it because I have a soft spot for old CRPGs (as infuriating they can be sometimes). And, after a little more digging into Troika, some of it's members worked on the original Fallout games so that gives me even more reason to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hi! It's always nice to see a new blog, and you have a post style really similar to mine so I really enjoyed your review. Screenshots are great and you actually convinced me to introduce them in my next review, and you also scratched the itch for a VTM playthrough.

You mentinoed Arcanum, if you tolerate very old and clunky bird-view party cRPGs is a really unique game to play. The game is set in a steampunk setting where classic fantasy race live and are exploited by factory owners, and mages wield great powers but are discriminated since their powers can uncontrollably blow up everything randomly. A very unique setting that wasn't replicated in any other game, if I remember right.

Homefront was a game I was expecting to be terrible going in, I was expecting myself to play and dislike it as much as the campaigns to Battlefield Bad Company 2, Battlefield 4, Medal of Honor 2010, Medal of Honor Warfighter and Ace Combat Assault Horizon but surprisingly, I got some enjoyment out of it, sure the game is a CoD clone to the point if you put a screenshot side by side of this and a CoD game from that gen, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. Yes, games like Freedom Fighters are much more realized and better executed game with a similar premise. And yes, this game isn't going to win over the people who don't like these style of scripted military shooters but I'd say Homefront is an acceptable CoD clone than an insufferably bad one like the aforementioned games. I'd say it's a CoD clone on par with the James Bond games from the Activision era.

Two of the big reasons as to why is that for one, it checkpoints well, rarely if ever has moments where the scripting becomes so obvious that it breaks the illusion like say prison to ski lift shootout in Battlefield 4 or that building sniper section in Medal of Honor Warfighter and the game is pretty short and goes by quickly like a movie does. Another good thing it does, and this could be as a negative for some but the game tells you during it's more scripted sections who to kill and what precisely to do during them meaning there be less restarts because of ambiguity of not being able to tell what to do during scripted sections.

The gunplay is pretty similar to CoD especially the CoDs in the 7th gen, you got the two weapon limit, grenades that will rarely be used since all you fight are human infantry soldiers, lots of interchangeable hitscan weapons where reliable aiming is through ADS and the difference between them being the various attachments, but it does replicate CoD's combat decently enough, at least weapons have decent firing sounds and damage animations to enemies have decent feedback.

However one thing I do like is that using the sniper does not require you to hold your breath and you can fire away with it which makes it a weapon I want to use. I also like that weapons run out of ammo pretty often even on easy meaning I have to use guns enemies use from time to time which makes combat slightly more dynamic.

There are some cool moments like battling on the San Franciso bridge, escourting multiple trucks while riding a helicoptor(this never got as obnxious as the protect missions in Ace Combat Assault Horizon), and fighting through a store where the infamous white posphorous scene happens.

Some negatives is that easy mode doesn't make a difference since your player character's health is pretty low even on that difficulty. CoD's easy modes does at the very least give you more HP.

The story also isn't that good but at the same time, I'm more annoyed by the silent protagonist since the characters talk to him a lot and he never says a word. I find the concept to be wildely outdated especially in games where the story involves characters interacting with each other.

There was glitch where an NPC was supposed to open a door but it wouldn't causing me to restart the mission and then have it happen when getting to that part again.

Overall, for a game I was expecting to be completely garbage, I kind of liked it, is it something you should go out of your way to play? No but if you want something to beat in an afternoon or weekend, you could do worse than this.

This was a weird one, I played on PS3 a few years ago and I recall dropping it pretty quickly, I might've learned that the game was one of the PS3's most expensive games at the time or later, but that doesn't really matter since the game now has a Nintendo Switch remaster while getting a PC remaster beforehand, and after beating it? My thoughts are pretty much the same, I can see why myself from a few years ago did drop the game and the only reason I was able to get to the end at all was because it checkpoints well and for the combat, you restart exactly where you died from pressing the L, R, and A buttons at the same time, more on that later. Outside of that, I find the game to be painfully mediocre in almost every respect. I intially played it at all because some called it an "underrated" game while terms like that are nebulous at best, I still don't think it's a good game or a game deserving of that reputation.

The good thing about El Shaddai or at the very least is the visuals, it might be the only thing about the game that geniunely stands out. If you are one the seemingly many people who love to complain about 7th gen games being "brown", "grey" and having "ugly" color palletes, this might be a game from that gen to capture your interest since everything is vibrant, colorful and has a nice cel shaded look to it. The environments have a dreamlike design to them and some of the visuals are so bizarre yet awfully eerie. If you are the kind of guy who really wants a game to look very nice and care about that more so than the gameplay or love to go on and on about how a game looks visually then check the game out because now I transition to the negative and not so good things about El Shaddai.

Before I do that, I'll also say music and voice acting is passable enough if nothing standout.

I'll start with the combat, and it's interesting on paper, the game apparently uses a rock, paper, scissors system of enemies being weak certain weapons but the problem I noticed right away was even back when I first played is that enemies are massive damage sponges, they take forever to die and taking them down just takes way too long, and btw, I played on easy and this is still an issue.

Veil was by far the best weapon since it does the best job at staggering enemies and it has a dodge command that is somewhat reliable, it's esstentially the Nemen Cestus from God of War 3 in that it's a pair of magical boxing gloves and it allows the character to move like a boxer but due to the enemies being damage sponges, it never feels as awesome or empowering as GOW3's Cestus.

Arch and Gale never really feel that great and just feel weak, especially the latter, I just whailed on the attack button with Gale and it chips away at enemy HP very slowly and it felt like what was supposed to be a 5 minute fight went on for 10 minutes. Arch just feels like a typical sword with not much standing out from it.

The enemy roster is also pretty weak, outside of the fact that the game stops introducing new enemies after you get Veil, their only threat to the player is how hp spongey they are. I wonder if having the ability to switch between the 3 weapons could make the combat more dynamic and enjoyable but I'm not sure.

So with all these issues, what helped me get through the game? Well, it's the fact that during combat Enoch can't get a traditional game over, like I said before just press L, R, X and A and you can keep respawning without redoing any content, this also works on bosses. They are also HP sponges and some are required to lose in order to progress the story but it doesn't really matter since you can keep respawning with no consequences.

However there is one problem, you can keep respawning after death during combat but not during the platforming, and this leads me into my second big issue with El Shaddai is that the 3D platforming is really terrible. There is 2D platforming as well, and these parts are okay, if nothing special but it does make the game feel confused on what it tries to be since the 2D platforming can feel jarring compared to the 3D sections and they go away entirely over halfway into the game.

The 3D platforming is just awful, some of the worst 3D platforming I can even recall, there are late 90s 3D platformers that control better than this. The best way of describing it is that what if Devil May Cry 1, had more platforming? This is what you get, the camera doesn't do the greatest of job giving you an angle on where to jump and the jumping physics never feel precise, half the time if I want to make it to a platform, it's a 30-50 guessing game, sometimes I'll land and at other times I'll fall off if I nudge the analog stick a little too much, and the game doesn't just have you jump to platforms, no, you got to dodge traps and moving platforms as well and it takes what was already bad and makes it worse since these controls weren't even good for the 3D platforming in the game without hazards. The game does checkpoint mostly well to make this bearable all though before a combat section with some of them and getting back to the platforming section can be tedious since combat is long due to the aforementioned issues of enemies being damage sponges.

Old God of War also had 3D platforming with a follow cam but Kratos' jump arc actually feels like I can predict where I'm supposed to land and it doesn't feel like 30-50 guessing of whether or not Kratos will land on the platform or not.

Overall, El Shaddai could've been so okay, it's average but the platforming just makes me dread playing it. Remove these sections and it could've been just that.

— 09/02/2024 9:07 PM
Did errands for the kitchen lady and hide booze for the english teacher. MAde it into town and won the boxing championship. Preps tried t get out of paying me 1000 bucks so they gave me a coselation prize... a lighthouse. Feel I did alot better with that

Game crashed on me and there some wonky controls for the skateboarding. Also finding that the music overlaps with the audio and really like the some subtitles. With these issues still enjoyng the game and getting some laughs out of it
— 09/03/2024 7:47 PM
Not much today just did some jobs around the area
— 09/04/2024 9:47 PM
took pinky on a date, started the bike races and egged tads house
— 09/08/2024 9:27 PM
okay had one more session:

Defeated the preppies and reached the third chapter

So enjoying bully for what it is however there are some annoying outdated design choices which hampering the game for me. The big one is a lack of either an autosave or a universal save (i.e. save anywhere). My game has since crashed a extra two more times (in the last session). Luckily the first I had early on so didn't lose too much but the second I lost the last of the bike races and kart race so will have to repeat. Not sure the cause but it's putting a damper on the games fun.

The good however is I think this showed that it was possible to change the settings of the GTA games and it still worked. It's got the same style of humour as the old GTA games. Bit hit and miss some parts feel outdated but unlike Sunset overdrive I feel the humour can stand on it's own. Missions are short and work itself into the time frame between classes. The time functionality works well and punishes in a non determinant way for truancy (still possible to do things without the people getting in the way). I hope I can get through the game without losing too much progrss cause I am enjoying the game and looks I've made decent progress already in the game

I've been playing the new WoW expansion: The War Within A LOT lately. Long-time WoW player here so I've been playing it mostly the last 20 years. They really figured out how to streamline a lot of things from Dragonflight (the last expansion) - and the launch for this one was smooth. The new zones are deep in the earth - and one is probably the best looking and interesting zone ever - Hallowfall - it's illuminated by this huge crystal of light in the sky in the cavern. The new hero talents are really interesting and fun and I've been levelling several characters of mine just to play around with them. I've been debating on which character to focus on but I think I'm going to go my usual Mage - I think with Arcane Spellslinger which is fun - so is Sunfury (a phoenix pops up when u do a big cooldown and starts spamming Arcane and Fire spells!) Diabolist Destruction Warlock is really fun too - summoning these huge demons to fight for you. Raids start this Tuesday, as does Mythic dungeons, and the new Delve feature is fun - mini solo dungeons with you and an AI companion where you can get similair gear from even raiding or Mythic+. Also having all your mounts now able to "Skyriding" with dynamic flight is amazing - just like you did with your dragons in Dragonflight.

I also bought the new Star Wars: Outlaws game. I'm a huge Star Wars nerd (see avatar pic!) but this game, while looking beautiful, just isn't hitting the marks for me. I don't enjoy stealth gameplay really (which is why the Assassin's Creed franchise got tired for me fast.) I made it to the first big planet then stopped playing and would rather play the new WoW expansion. I'll get back to it at some point - possibly.

Lodynet شاهد المسلسلات الهندية عبر الإنترنت وقم بتنزيلها مجانًا

https://lodynet.li/

Weekly Game Sept 01 – 07
What was this week? My youngest nephew started kindergarten! And has already gotten sick despite the very short days. It’s also been smoky again the past couple days yaaay. In brighter news, a whole lot of Lunar and Sea of Stars this week! Sea of Stars sucked me back in hard. It just scratches some different itches for me. And we finished Lunar!

--

New/Added Games:
Nothing

--

Started:
Nothing

--

Finished:
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete - 39:04
Finished! There was a lot I did not remember so I’m glad we revisited it. It has some, uh, ‘choice’ localization and things I can only roll my eyes at in terms of sexism and that kind of ‘fun’ stuff, but it’s still an enjoyable game overall. And I do love how much the NPCs change much like Trails.

--

Currently Playing

Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (PC, Steam)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Switch)
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (PC)
Sea of Stars (PC, Steam)

Daily
Sunday: Quest for Glory II, Sea of Stars
Monday: Sea of Stars
Tuesday: Sea of Stars
Wednesday: Sea of Stars, Lunar SSSC
Thursday: Sea of Stars, Lunar SSSC
Friday: Sea of Stars, Lunar SSSC
Saturday: Sea of Stars, Lunar SSSC

--

Progress:

Sea of Stars


Much progress as I’ve been flying through a pretty good rate with NG+. I got my last achievement! So, I’ve taken off the relic. It was more fun than I expected for a while, but I’ve hit a point where I would like to have my HP back haha and the locks are only getting more complex to break.

Anyhoo I'm in big spoiler territory now. I’m… doing Garl’s final deed sob. But before that was all the stuff on Mesa Island which I absolutely love. Glacial Peak! Autumn Hills! SONGSHROOM marsh! Glacial Peak and Songshroom in particular are just areas made for me. Snow mountain? Yes please. Mushrooms, singing mushrooms? Yes please. And Autumn Hills is particularly fun to compare to The Messenger version.
But that also meant getting to Clockwork Castle and facing the Dweller and Garl taking the killing blow… I have the volcano to do then it’s bread time then… funeral ☹. Even knowing it’s coming and knowing what can come is still sad.

-

Backlog: 159

Weekly Update #7

Short update this week since I had a backpacking trip for the last 36 hours or so.

FFXII is still in progress, but I'm close to the end and just arrived at Pharos Lighthouse/Riadoran Cataract. I haven't bothered with a single hunt since last update, which speed things right up.

I've come to appreciate the things about the game I was critiquing the last few updates:

Turns out that being overwhelmed by the license board is just unnecessary since there's more than enough license points available to unlock all the stuff you want for each character - and that's just at level 40ish with low to moderate grinding.

Gambits are just great it turns out. 9/10 RPG mechanic when executed this well.

The story is rightfully chided for being a Star Wars ripoff early on, and a bit dry and political, but there is a pretty definite turning of a corner right around the time your party goes to Draklor laboratory then giruvegan/the crystal. Motivations and the real source of conflict and villainy are finally made clear and it gets a lot more interesting, though still not amazing. It's a shame that it's like 2/3rds or more of the way through the game before it gets spicy.

Honestly, it's a game that I could see going for 100% on. I find the gameplay enjoyable and love the aesthetic of the world. I'll probably keep a save just before the final battle incase I decide to do that.

Until next time - which I will imagine will include the completion of FFXII and maybe even Halo: Reach.

The end has come and the season finishes up with this final episode where @pokepaw and I take a look to the future. What are we keen to finish? What’s been sitting on the backlog begging to be played? What new releases are we looking forward to in the future?

Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped support season three and make it fun. It was a blast to put together, but all good things must come to an end. Who knows what will happen in the future, but for now, it’s done!

Thanks for listening.

3.5 years after starting Risk of Rain 2, 44.5 hours in, I have finally beaten a Solo Monsoon difficulty run playing as Bandit



Take that, Mithrix!

Daily Challenge - 2024-09-08
Score: 156 / 300
⬛🟩🟩 🟦 = 39 | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
🟩🟩🟩 🟦 = 63 | Subnautica
🟩🟦🟧 🟦 = 54 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

I finished Lords of the Fallen a couple of nights ago, fenomenal soulslike that gets a bad rep because of some performance issues. They are down to a minimial now though, I didn't encounter anything gamebreaking or even particularly bad. The second half of the game was pretty easy, the bosses just melted before my radiance-build, but I had a good time. Don't always need that soulsborne difficulty hanging over me like a suspended hammer.

Now I'm playing through the first Shantae, and that game hasn't aged well... But I thought I would play through it because I want to play the later games in the series and it feels good to knock them all out in order. It's starting to click with me a bit, so I don't have anything against it but it will be nice when it's done.

I also play the Paper Mario remake, it's terrific! Haven't had much time with it though the last few weeks so I'm hoping to be able to play more soon.

Picked up Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth physically because I'll be able to play it due to finishing the 3 hashino Persona games and Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, so I can have the pre-order bonus for whenever I'll replay the second game.

Daily Challenge - 2024-09-08
Score: 140 / 300
⬛🟩🟩 🟦 = 46 | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
🟥🟥🟥 🟦 = 31 | Subnautica
🟦🟦🟧 🟦 = 63 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2024-09-08
Score: 154 / 300
🟪🟧⬛ 🟩 = 45 | R | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
🟩🟩🟦 🟪 = 73 | S | Subnautica
🟥⬛🟦 🟩 = 36 | P | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

It depends but I do notice I have to be in the right mood for it. As much as I hate to say it, a lot of the older games I loved to play as a kid are kid a little to hard to get into either because of the controls or the gameplay mechanics. I often wonder how I had so much patience to get through some of them, often more than once!

I recently acquired Snatcher and Policenauts for the PS1. Waiting on a few more imports to come in still.