April 2022 Channel Update – Thank You Easter Break

Hey all,

April’s come and gone! Games aside, I feel like it’s generally a busy month with Annoying Life Things like taxes, fiscal years ending/starting, school exams, etc. Hopefully yours has been treating you okay!

I had a work break this past week and basically spent it playing games and more games lol. It’s time for me to go back in tomorrow 🥲 but nonetheless it was a relaxing time that really let me stay on top & ahead of the video schedule and all that!

TL;DR

• Finished: Weird West
• Ongoing: Horizon Forbidden West, TUNIC
• Upcoming: Trek to Yomi, VTM – Swansong

Games Finished Since Last Update

Weird West (20 parts): There’s one last video I haven’t posted by this post, but I’ve finished the game & can form a full opinion on it. Aside from bugs (which don’t bother me), I feel like it’s missing a few more design iterations to really smooth things out. In short: it’s got lots of cool mechanics built for emergent gameplay, but not enough of actual content to go around. There are also some critical game balance issues, e.g. abilities/perks/weapons don’t make a big difference even on higher difficulties.

I think your enjoyment of Weird West will depend on what kind of video game player you are. It thrives on sandbox style experimentation, and I’ve seen some like it because you can get some really crazy unique-to-your-playthrough stuff happening with the emergent gameplay. From my story-first perspective: the setting and core narrative are interesting, but everything else (including external factors like game price & length) would make this game difficult for me to recommend as is.

There are multiple planned community events though so the devs do seem committed to patches & updates for the long term. Things may change some months down the line!

I also took a first look at:

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: I’m familiar with the Borderlands franchise via BL1/BL2/Tales of Borderlands, but fell off when 3 rolled around. This is a more fantasy/medieval take on their looter shooter formula and from what I could tell, still feels great to play as it did back in the day. I don’t know if it’s a sign of age or what but I feel I might not be in the target market for the style of humour they’re going for anymore though lol. It’s likely still a fun play with friends but a tad lonely solo on the channel!

Progress on Current Stuff

Horizon Forbidden West: I’m still enjoying this lots but I may have overestimated how far along I was… the in-game progression tracker shows I’m at about 45% now. I finished HZD in 73 videos but at 60+ videos into HFW, I really don’t get the sense I’m close to the end. There is still sooo much to see and do!

It hasn’t reflected on the channel yet but I’ve been steadily increasing my playing pace, so  at some point I'm hoping the video output rate will follow as well.

TUNIC: An isometric action game about a small fox investigating the island they’re stuck on, full of mysterious happenings and even more cryptic writings. I’ve seen this compared to Fez (for puzzles), Dark Souls (for combat), and Zelda (for the exploration?). Visually it’s reminiscent of Death’s Door which I did a first look of before, but IMO the mystery elements really enhance the whole thing. Excellent so far!

Upcoming Stuff

As I said last time, there’s really not many big games releasing soon, but in May we do have:

• 5th: Trek to Yomi (side-scrolling samurai combat game w/ Kurosawa film cinematography style)
• 19th: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong (Telltale-style adventure game by The Council devs)

I’m REALLY excited for Swansong b/c of how amazingly chaotic The Council was 🤣 Both of these should be about short to medium length. For something longer, I’ll wait until I get closer to wrapping up Horizon so things are not too overloaded.

Thanks for the support as always! Feel free to let me know any thoughts you have and/or any upcoming games I may have missed!

See you next month,

Welonz