October 2023 Channel Update – It’s Not a Lake
Added 2023-10-23 21:08:47 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
We’re smack in the middle of release season and everything is chaos (ಥ◡ಥ) This’ll be a succinct one - bear with me!
TL;DR
- Finished: RE4 Separate Ways
- Ongoing: DAI, CP2077: Phantom Liberty
- Upcoming: Alan Wake 2 first, then Spider-Man 2
Finished Stuff
Resident Evil 4 Remake Separate Ways DLC: Great fun - short, sweet, and reminded me how enjoyable the core RE4 gameplay loop is. It definitely makes me want to check out other/more RE games when things aren’t so busy (don’t talk to me about the first person ones though l o l…)
We also had a first look of VIDEOVERSE, which caught my attention as it’s the third highest rated game this year on OpenCritic with a 92/100. It’s an indie visual novel-esque adventure focusing on Internet and gaming culture of yore (= early 2000s 😂). Just from the beginning part it felt very genuine, wholesome, and true to the time it’s trying to emulate. It's something I think I definitely would've liked to see more of if time allowed.
Current Stuff
Dragon Age: Inquisition: I’ve moved into Act 3 of 3 now. Honestly I’m pretty numbed by the fetch quests but as usual the core story is still nice. The romance front has been kinda interesting - in previous games, you could only indicate romantic interest to people who are interested back, so flirting success is 100% guaranteed. However that’s not the case with DAI, and it’s created a variety of Very Interesting Situations where I’ve been getting rejected, people are sending/received mixed signals, etcetc… basically a nightmare scenario for people who try to flirt with everyone (me) 😇
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty: I already enjoyed my time with 1.0 a lot a few years back, but 2.0 + Phantom Liberty ups the quality in every department. All side quests are thoughtful with difficult choices – even for someone who normally tries to be pacifist, Night City draws out a very "every person for themselves" type of survival instinct in me. Haven't made it to the end yet but I think I'm near!
Upcoming Stuff
Last week, patrons+ were able to vote on whether Spider-Man 2 or Alan Wake 2 should be the next focus after Phantom Liberty (given that I can't realistically get to both in such a tight release window), and surprisingly the results were fairly one-sided:
I took some time off work this week to relax and digest all this, so I should be able to get to Alan Wake 2 right at release. Hopefully it’ll be a good Halloween thing too! I’ll loop back to Spider-Man 2 as soon as capacity allows as well.
Miscellaneous Stuff
Some of you may already have noticed Patreon rolled out a bunch of changes in the past month (new logo, web interface, big focus on the mobile app, etc etc). To be honest I haven’t had the time to look into it deeply, although everywhere I look people seem somewhat unhappy (eg. on the creator side, posting has been made more cumbersome, the new “free” tier they force you to have is also causing confusion.) I’ve changed nothing about how this page operates at the moment and there’s nothing you need to do either, but I wanted to keep you in the loop that Things have been Happening. Please feel free to let me know how the experience is on the patron side too – I think most of us understand Patreon to be a middleman between you and I, and we certainly shouldn't be tied to it if they overstep their role esp. negatively.
With that it’s back to the “trenches” for me!! Thanks for your support as always, and feel free to comment any suggestions/comments/whatever else below. Have a great Halloween next week as well 🎃
Cheers,
Welonz
Comments
Multiple people have come to me with this one, I think I'll def check it out!
Materwelonz
2023-11-12 06:47:22 +0000 UTChave you heard of slay the princess? just released i think, seems very up your alley, visual novel but fully voiced. best to go into knowing nothing :^)
cecil choi
2023-11-12 02:55:04 +0000 UTCith it Welonz, it’s indeed gonna be a monster.
Mikey S
2023-10-26 19:10:44 +0000 UTC… but now as I write this, it’s 89 on OpenCritic. Thank god, another GOTY contender. I hope you have so much fun with w
Mikey S
2023-10-26 19:10:18 +0000 UTCCan’t wait for Alan Wake! Hope you’ve got a beefy PC to run it, cause it’s gonna be extensive… 😳
Mikey S
2023-10-25 12:31:55 +0000 UTCPatreon doesn't seem too different from this side. Just a bit uglier. I hope the changes don't turn out to be a pain in the butt for you. I loved seeing Videoverse. I hope you can spring some more surprises like that on us whenever you have the time.
Blue72
2023-10-25 01:18:51 +0000 UTCYes! Hopefully the issues will get sorted 🤞
Materwelonz
2023-10-24 17:33:14 +0000 UTCHey, I remember you peaking an interest in the MGS Collection not too long ago. Now that it's out do you still consider playing it after they fix the launch issues ?
Machined
2023-10-24 17:18:44 +0000 UTCLmao I was thinking about this too, but I think I'd still give it to FFXVI 😂 in Inquisition it's at least mechanically more interesting, I can walk around look at scenery and stuff, but the 5 second pause after every change in speaker in the FF cutscenes.... 🗿
Materwelonz
2023-10-24 16:53:33 +0000 UTCI'm glad you're enjoying the main story in DA:I, that's really what it's all about and it only gets better from here. Morrigan's entrance is the tip of the iceberg. Don't let the side quest grind take away from enjoying it. I'm sure most of us that wanted you to play it did so because of the main story and characters. You know how you concluded at the Winter Palace that you weren't meant to do it all in one playthrough, that's the whole game. I think roleplaying what side stuff to get involved goes a long way to making it fun. It's a game that meant to be replayed, for better or worse. The DLC content is massive, Trespasser is required, it's the real ending basically. Decent, that you started, is tough but has a lot of good lore and characters, I think you'll like it. Jaws of Hakkon, however, is much more pure side content. One one hand, the Avaar are new and interesting, but they don't come up much elsewhere. The quests and combat are among the most tedious in the game. It's the one you could skip with the least complaints I think. My opinion isn't very radical here
Sharrow
2023-10-24 06:39:47 +0000 UTCWhich has the worse side quest of 2023 Dragon Age or FFXVI?
Bookwyrm
2023-10-24 06:04:02 +0000 UTCcan't wait for Alan wake, we fans of horror just love seeing someone still capable of being impacted by horror play through these kinds of games. I don't expect that it will actually be that scary but maybe I'll be able to see it as such through the eyes of someone who hasn't been completely desensitized to the genre. Also not sure you're plans but if you think another big fantasy RPG would be a good follow up to DA:I then Baldur's Gate 3 fills that niche and in my opinion (and apparently many others based on the reviews I've watched) that could be a fun one.
Kyle Junge
2023-10-24 03:24:51 +0000 UTCI'm very surprised that Alan Wake 2 won. Seems like you're cultivating quite the horror following Welonz. And well, you know me, I'd be happy to see you do more RE stuff and more than happy to help you play the older games in the best way possible 🙏
Captain Kashup
2023-10-24 00:55:06 +0000 UTCPatreon creator & now CEO seemed like a genuinely good guy when he was making it, he is a musician. Unfortunately shortly after creating it he agreed to have investors. Lockdown was a time when Patreon income grew substantially, but since then income growth stopped, which does not please investors, so CEO is making bizarre decisions. As for the results of the survey, well, under one of the videos of the scary game you wrote that it's supposedly us fans who like you to suffer. And then you released a video titled "announcement" without a thumbnail... Can't wait to watch you play a Alan Wake 2! 😇
WallHammer
2023-10-23 23:23:38 +0000 UTC
