February 2024 Channel Update – It’s The End Of The Month And I Haven't Write An Update Yet AaaAAaaaaa

Hi all,

It’s the mega crazy release month!!!!!!!!!!!!

My brain is kinda fried right now so please pretend I wrote some nice intros, pleasantries and niceties here and we’ll get on with the video games 😂

TL;DR

• Finished: Thirsty Suitors, The Exit 8
• Ongoing: Lies of P, Pacific Drive
• Upcoming: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Finished Stuff

Thirsty Suitors (7 videos, 1-2 hours long each): Did a first look of this back in December and went back for it! Good lord dialogue is so impeccably snappy and witty. It's not for everyone, but I think the immigrant story of juggling family relations, personal identity, and intergenerational trauma will hit really hard for people who can relate. Great little gem.

The Exit 8 (1 video): Essentially a spot-the-difference game, but made scary because players have overactive imagination 😂 Short & sweet, never overstayed its welcome – had a good time with this one! (This was totally a “hey I saw everyone else playing it, maybe I’ll check it out too kind of game hahah.)

First Looks

INDIKA: A nun goes on a journey of self-discovery in 19th century alternative Russia. This one is bizarre – aesthetically it’s Plague Tale (ie. 3D photorealism), but it also has these pixel art/chiptune music segments that clash very hard with the realism. Maybe these opposing elements are used for commentary re: the theological themes but it’s hard to conclude from the demo. Very weird, but I’ll continue to keep a look out for it.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden: DON’T NOD’s latest choose your own adventure of a pair of ghost hunters who must navigate making difficult choices in a land where spirits and curses are commonplace. It’s a slow start – I played ~1.5 hours and still didn’t really get to the meat of things yet. The story and dialogue quality seem well-polished, though nothing super “WOW!!!” jumped out at me in the time I spent with it. Would’ve liked to check this one out more if it wasn’t crazy month!

Tomb Raider Remastered: This looks great graphically but the modern controls that I played with were frustratingly inaccurate, and it felt more like a game about battling the controls more so than Lara parkouring or fighting some cave animals. I think it’s totally okay to retain the 1996 gameplay feel but some more robust features like auto-saving would’ve been really welcome too.

Current Stuff

Lies of P: Pinocchio Soulslike aka my first time with a “real” Soulslike on the channel. I’ve finished the game now – thank goodness I don't have to cancel this series because I suck too much! I’ll save the bulk of my impressions for when the series gets to end (about ~10 more videos as of this post) but I had a good time with something more gameplay-focused.

Pacific Drive: It’s like Subnautica but with cars instead of boats and weird SCP-like anomalies instead of ocean monsters. I enjoyed the preview we did of it in January a lot, but with the full release I am seeing how unforgiving it can be (e.g. losing a lot of progress if you die) and the tedium and repetition can be a bit much. (The latter might be more of a content creator "omgg I gotta keep the video interesting" problem and not a player problem though, cause I think these gameplay loops can feel very addictive when you're the one actually doing it.)

I don’t’ think my opinions are fully formed yet so I’ll wait until I wrap up to say more. (I’m currently in a mad dash trying to at least finish playing this before Rebirth comes out lol.)

Upcoming Stuff

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth releases this coming week and I’m currently doing a big review of the story up until now to get ready for it. I think this + wrapping up Pacific Drive and Lies of P is going to be the bulk of the channel for the next bit.

I also wanted to share my reasoning for how I picked games this past month:

• I wanted to get to FF7R at launch, but I don’t know how long that’s going to be. A BG3 series is likely to be 100+ hours and these two will overlap if I started BG3 now, which isn't ideal
• FF7R comes out at the very end of February though, and if I wasn’t gonna start BG3 now either then that leaves a blank from January to February. I decided to slot in Thirsty Suitors, Lies of P, and Pacific Drive (all 3 are first looks from before)

All this to really say: yes, I see from the interest check poll from last update that lots of you want to see Baldur’s Gate 3, and rest assured that I haven’t forgotten about it – just looking for the right timing so I can enjoy it without too much stress. (Anyone remember when I was playing Witcher 3 and RDR2 at the same time – haha yeah that was really something LOL.) 

On that previous poll I mentioned The Thaumaturge and Open Roads being on my radar – both of these ended up getting delayed into March, which ironically makes it harder for me to get to because I think I’ll be focused on FF7R by then. I’ll try my best to at least fit in first looks if I can!

Anyway, I gotta get back to reviewing the rest of FF7 Remake – I have sooOOoo much to try to make sense of before Rebirth arrives lmao. I hope you're having a great time with all the games out this month! Thanks for your support as always and let me know your thoughts/suggestions/comments below!!

Cheers,
Welonz