It’s time for V’s depression arc. After botching the gig of her life, nearly dying and losing her apartment due to unpaid rent during her recovery she’s back to minor jobs and turning tricks just to survive. Things are looking bleak but that’s the Night City way, isn’t it?

I enjoy this role-play heavy playthrough more than I though I would. There’s a lot more downtime and conflict avoidance, making me feel more like part of the world than a normal playthrough. I also get to familiarise myself with the city better thanks to the lack of car and disabled fast-travel forcing me to walk more.

I still need to force myself to not slip back to my usual way of playing (unlimited hacking works) but I’m getting used to it. I’m sure it’ll lead to some painful encounters while I’m still figuring out what to focus on but it should be worth it - if only for variety’s sake.

Last time I mentioned the secret videos being kinda meh - well, the one on level 9 (Keyes) was pretty interesting. I missed 2 videos so there might’ve been something else but that’s where I’m at with them for now.

As for the game itself… I appreciate it from a historical perspective but I don’t think I’ll be coming back to it any time soon (unlike Reach). As game progressed, both level design and many of the encounters turned from “it’s neat” to “there’s more?! just let me progress, please”, turning a fun return to a classic into an exhausting experience.
I feel like this is one of the few games were age really affects my enjoyment of the whole thing, which is funny because I didn’t have similar issues with ONI (and that one is even rougher as a product).

I don’t regret it but I’m glad it’s done.

This game feels very different right off the bat. Even disregarding the Anniversary version improvements, the bombastic opening and light-hearted dialogue make the whole thing feel more like an action movie than an unnerving wannabe horror experience of the first game. I’m not saying that the original didn’t have cheese or that this game won’t have more serious moments but going through the start suggests a very different experience. Also, that Miranda Keys voice acting… it’s not great. Everyone in the game sounds fine except for her, no idea what happened there.

I really like Halo’s take on future earth, especially with the updated Anniversary art style - it looks great! One nitpick here is that the moment you look outside the designated arena (even places you can easily walk to) things start getting real empty pretty much right away. It’s not a huge issue and doesn’t really take away from the atmosphere but it did catch my attention.

Just like with the first game, I think they did really good job with the remaster. Refreshed art style, updated music and sound effects, new cutscenes - it all combines into a great package that feels awesome even today. I was a bit sceptical in terms of what to expect from these updated versions so I’m glad I was wrong.

Secret videos are another improvement - they are way more interesting than the ones in the first game. Maybe it’s because I don’t really care about the Forerunners storyline or perhaps because these ones are more directly relevant to the games I played. Either way I liked them more than Guilty Spark’s monologues.

One technical issue that’s bothering me (also happened in ODST) is that game mostly works fine but sometimes it registers my mouse input as if I clicked on the second monitor, losing focus until I click back on the game. Doesn’t happen often but it can be a huge pain in the middle of combat. I could understand if this happened all the time due to window mode setting but nope, it’s completely random.

Last week I said I won’t be pausing my Halo 2 playthrough to play ODST… well, I ended up doing just that.

I liked it quite a bit and found the hub based progression + multiple perspectives to be an interesting departure from the usual formula. I was expecting to feel a bit more vulnerable as a “normal dude” but considering how quickly you can die on Heroic in other games the difference is pretty much non-existent. What is noticeable is the gun feel - none of the weapons sound or feel as good as those in other games. I do like the pistol at least, not because it’s an exception or anything but it’s a perfect tool to thinning out the enemies from a sniping distance. It’s pretty crazy.

Despite great presentation, both voice acting and some of the cut scenes make the game feel just as light-hearted as the beginning of Halo 2 - it doesn’t prevent me from liking the characters and their interactions but it’s not really a grunt experience I was expecting it to be. I don’t have a problem with Holywood Halo but I do prefer the atmosphere and tone of Reach and the few books I read. There are still some beautiful, melancholic moments however they feel like a bonus rather than a main goal.

Unlike the anniversary versions of CE and 2, this game has secret audio logs instead of videos which I like quite a lot. They’re actually my favourite of the secret logs so far. They have great voice acting, simple but engaging story and good pacing (no weirdly placed sudden cut offs like in Halo 2 videos for example). I missed about half of them so I’ll have to go back and fix that - something I didn’t really feel compelled to do with Halo 1 & 2.

My new playthrough is slowly progressing. Just finished act 1 as I was focusing on “easier” jobs (fit to role-playing my current character) and simply enjoying the city.
I haven’t stumbled upon any difficulty spikes that would make me question what I’m doing which is a positive sign. We’ll see how things go now that I got to the “real game”.

Before I jump into the proper playthrough however I still have a little bit of a set up to perform - purely role-playing adjacent things, not something affecting the game story or anything like that. That’s actually the more interesting part of playing RPGs for me and the reason why I rarely bother with main stories in series like (3D) Fallout or The Elder Scrolls. Playing a hero is neat by cosplaying as a normal part of the world is way more interesting for me.

I didn’t expect to play this any time soon but since I managed to catch The Master Chief Collection on a 75% sale I decided to pull the trigger. Why Reach? I wanted to play the games in chronological order, simple as that. Well… mostly, as I won’t be pausing H2 for ODST for example. Still, the core idea is there.

Game holds up really well both graphically and in terms of gameplay. I do think the space flight missions were some of the worst gameplay segments I played in years but other than that it’s great.

I wish I went into the story completely blind but even despite that it manages to convey the emotions really well. One thing I forgot about (and really appreciate) is the ability to customise your Noble 6 - it’s a small thing but it does a lot to make the character feel mine. It also makes me wish future Halo games moved away from the Master Chief and focused on other, less exceptional characters. There’s so much potential for drama, tension and even horror like segments if only we got to see the world from the eyes of normal(ish) people. It could be neat.
I just think that MC really limits the storytelling potential at this point - with him at the helm devs have to come up with more and more out there reasons for yet another world ending catastrophe instead of writing more human and personal tales. That’s just something I’m personally interested in though, I’m not sure if the general public would be interested in this kind of Halo game.

I played the original PC release years ago so I expected this to be mostly a refresher - boy was it. I completely forgot A LOT of the actual levels (except for caves not being a natural formation) so it feels more like a new experience than expected.

I feel like they did a pretty good job upgrading the graphics for this title, I keep switching between the two modes and while the OG art looks neat, it’s also pretty freaking dark and drab a lot of the time (in a bad way).

Difficulty wise the game feels a bit harder than Reach, despite playing both games on Heroic difficulty - I think some of it has to do with absolute trash enemy spawn points (so many spawns right behind you, in places that were empty when checked, it’s not even funny) but I’m not going to use it as an excuse for all of my problems. I also have harder time trying to keep an eye on my HP by that’s just general mind goblins making me distracted rather than game’s fault.

It’s still really fun overall, but I do have two things I’m not too fond of. The first one are the long sections of the same corridors (as in literally copy and pasted sections with minimal adjustments) on certain maps. They actually remind me of ONI, another Bungie title from that era. I won’t say Halo didn’t improve on that aspect but some parts are almost just as big and empty as the ones in that game, making them the worst part of the experience.
The second “issue” are the 343 Guilt Sparks videos you can find hidden on each level - I understand their purpose but I don’t find them particularly interesting to watch. Marathon (I think?) data pads from Reach were much cooler, even if I found them to be a bit difficult to parse at times - there’s something about how they’re written that just shuts down my brain so I end up having to read some of them multiple times before things click.

Last but not least: the flood. I remember this level being pretty unnerving in the past but playing it now I can’t help but see them as easily kiteable silly little goobers. There was zero tension this time, only routine. Oh well.

I finished the campaign. Most I can say is that I came out of it with more positive than negative feelings about this title. Main story definitely improved compared to the early parts, writing on the other hand… not so much. The final stretch of missions was pretty cool at least (even though the trench missions were the easiest I’ve played in these games so far).

All in all, my reaction towards the game didn’t change much - it’s good, it just isn’t right for me.

On a different note, I have a unique technical issue with this game for whatever reason. When playing with a HOTAS my system doesn’t recognise that input is happening (game reacts normally) which can lead to it trying to hibernate my PC in the middle of a mission. It’s not a huge problem but I’ve never had anything like this happen with any other game I use my controller with.

Don’t know if this counts since the game released some time ago on Oculus, I think, but the PC version won’t be available until next week but whatever.

I tried the demo and the first thing that came to mind was “cute”. It has charming writing, simple but pleasant art style, distinct character designs with great voice acting (at least the Japanese one) and fun VR controls. One of the rare instances in recent years when I eagerly want to experience more.

I’ll be keeping an eye out on how the full release turns out as so far it’s pretty promising.