Hey all! Been a few weeks since I last weighed in. Hope the holidays have been good to you all. I had a very good Christmas and New Year! After what felt like an eternity of waiting, I got Smash Bros. Ultimate for Christmas, and it certainly lives up to its name. I don’t know what else I can say about this game that…

Feel free to speculate on just who made it into the Good Place in 1497. Although, honestly, it’s unlikely to have been anyone famous and powerful enough to get his/her own Wikipedia entry.

The pacing is back to being slow again in the epilogue, so after the rush that is the final chapter it definitely makes sense to take a quick break, Do let us know when you return to it! I do love talking about the story with people.

I feel like I should pretend all these questions are rhetorical, because if I answer them I’ll be drawn in, and that’d be a huge mistake...

I am not a religious jalopnik reader and I know diddly about cars.
But I still nominate this scene from the Final Sacrifice for your critiquing pleasure. (Scene starts exactly 30 minutes in, if the link didn’t work.)

Anything with a hint of western in it is suggestive of Red Dead to me, it’s not your fault I keep seeing it everywhere I look. The sequel is an improvement narratively but keeps some jankiness. If you ever do decide to play Red Dead, I would love your thoughts, but until then, I’m glad you are enjoying God of War! If…

I keep going back to a quote from Dutch. “Revenge is a fool’s game.” I still can’t tell if it was revenge or justice when John pulled the trigger. But at least, before he died, Dutch betrayed Micah.

Indeed! Spoilers to follow.

I can’t wait until Gohan becomes SS2 and kills Odin. Wait...

No personal experience, but someone from Gameological had Skyrim VR and highly recommended it. They always made it sound super interesting to me, but I am an Xbox / Switch owner and I’m not ready to make a plunge like that.

Did you finish the main story or an epilogue? Both have lots of feels but they varied wildly for me.

Gameplay wise I agree with you somewhat - the mechanics are a bit archaic here and there, and they always choose atmosphere and animation over responsiveness and fluidity. Red Dead actually has a fun auto-aim system, and it’s still challenging to get headshots so it’s not like its coddling you. I still really enjoyed…

I have played the first Red Dead, so I know what’s going to happen. I’m just curious how they’re going to set up John with an (I’m assuming) happy ending in RDR2 while also laying the groundwork for RDR. Like the rest of the game, it’s all about the journey, cause most of us already know the destination.

The diagnosis is the turning point of the game. Arthur’s character arc pivots after that point, and it’s where his road to redemption can really begin in earnest. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that once you’ve beat the game. I beat it last night...one of the best written and acted stories I’ve ever seen.

Rockstar’s priorities clearly placed atmosphere over responsiveness. The fact that it takes time to set up the animation for petting a dog while you’ve been hitting the “Pat Dog” button for 5 seconds is a simple demonstration of it. But honestly, I kind of like that they leaned into that. They didn’t want to sacrifice…

Makes sense! Velen did a really good job of being a disgusting area that could still muster beauty here and there. I was surprised to find I eventually liked the Baron, despite some of his shittiness. The moral decisions in this game are everything though, so it’s always interesting to see what path everyone’s taken!

The game amps up in intensity for sure. Rockstar seemed more intent on providing an atmosphere in the beginning chapters than keeping the blood pumping, which is why the plot at first moves so slowly. I’m maybe too deep into the plot to say this objectively, but it gets really, really good. It’s worth the build-up.

Early 00's platformers got away with a lot, didn’t they? Personally I hated the Spider Caves in Jak & Daxter, but Mol & Gaia’s Citadel also sucked. You get good enough to get past it but it’s still frustrating. And on a related note, up until now I always thought I just wasn’t good enough at platforming in the Meat…

That’s a really astute observation. It adds another layer when you remember your base of operations right now is an abandoned house in a swamp, a relic of a past age being slowly destroyed by nature. Those two images clash pretty nicely.

I understand! So you’re working through Novigrad now, did you do anything in Velen or Skellige?