A weekly blog post about what I've been playing and how late I am to playing it...

Howdy y'all. Just jumping right in here. Gotta "move fast and break things" y'know?

I'm a tad late to Tiny Tina's Wonderland. But I'm also not late to it at all. My partner and I snagged copies of this day one because Borderlands 3 was among the first games that we played together that felt like a "hardcore" gaming experience.

I am here to tell you that Tina's is perhaps one of the more perfect "get your nonvideo gaming friends to play a shooter and fall in love with gaming" games out there. Or.... at least that was released this past March.

I imagine most of my readers are at least familiar with the idea of Borderlands—runnin', gunnin', lootin', and tootin'. It's got a very classic dopamine response feedback system. You got guns to blow stuff up. The explosion is colorful loot. Now you have better guns to make bigger explosions. It's simple, but damn does it work.

Why is this an incredible "starter game"?

First: It's fun. The plot, the style, the customizations, the emotes, the combat mechanics.

Second: It has so many options to fine tune your experience for all levels of play and familiarity to join your party. I mean, really! I can play on badass hard mode while my partner plays on regular. AND we just had a "total noob" to really any modern gaming join our party, and they are having a blast blasting skellies on easy mode. I am totally impressed with their coop options that allow for cohesive and appropriate gameplay across many different skill levels. I did not feel that the enemies were nerfed simply because of our team makeup. Nope! Still had to death save just as much as usual.

Third: This is a big one for me. I feel weird about shooters these days. I AM NOT starting a political debate. I am simply stating that, sometimes it's really hard for me to disconnect from a world with so much gun violence into a world with so much gun violence.

I recently started up COD WWII because i was missing a shooter type game in my rotation and I have fond memories of booting up WWII shooters back in my highschool bedroom. I know it's "killing nazis", but I've come to understand the world and war in a different way than I did as a kid.

I actually really enjoyed what I played of COD WWII, but I did reach a point where the conflict felt a bit too real given the current circumstances. The game was still fun, but I couldn't do it.

Listen, you absolutely shoot and kill humanoids in Tina's. You even kill fully fledged, not even disguised as zombies, humans. I don't know if it's the framing—a "bunkers and badasses" game to pass the time in a post apocalyptic world—or if it's the goofy nature of just about every character that brings the game to a cartoony place for me (hey cell shading!).

You are also constantly faced with non-humanoid creatures. This is where the game shines for me. Not just because my tender heart can't help but hurt for those pixels. It's also because Gearbox did an awesome job designing these villains. They constantly feel fresh and not recycled. They make sense theme-wise with the different areas you explore. They often elicit a laugh either through their voiceover, their animation, or just straight up character design.

Also, I think there's blood. But we all know we show up for the blues, the purples, the oranges in those loot splosions.

Also, the guns are super fun. Super varied. In Borderlands 3, I reached a point where I was only really looking for a better version of whatever my favorite gun was. In Tina's, my backpack looks completely refreshed every few levels and there is something....refreshing about that.

Play in a group if you can! I've done both solo and group play. Let me tell you, it's better with a partner, incredible with an orgy (?).

VOICE ACTING> Wow, I hope this cast becomes the bar for video games. I've noticed more and more "household names" show up in video games over the years. But this has got to be one of the more impressive rosters. Not only that, but they recorded sooooo muuuuuch dialogue. I'm literally playing Borderlands with Will Arnett, Wanda Sykes, and Andy Samberg. It's lit.

One last thing before I decide this has been enough writing...

This is my favorite Borderlands game. I have played all of them. Some of them multiple times and multiple NG+'s. B2 was my jam back in the day. Until Tina's, it was still my favorite—although I fully admit and would scream from the rooftops that the combat adjustments they made in 3 were needed and incredible.

Borderlands has always had the kind of humor that is typically assosciated with young men in second grade. I believe it's referred to as "potty humor". We've watched the developers eye the times and make slight adjustments along the way. The series has been in existence for well over a decade and as a certain singer/songwriter you've never heard of says "times, they are a changing".

I could feel the push and pull in the script of 3 where they knew they had to make adjustments to maintain their humorous up and up, but I felt like they didn't quite know how to do it without losing their identity.

Tinas: They did it. This is THE BEST that the humor has ever read to me. Still very irreverent. Many jokes are still from the toilet. However, this time around it's just funny. If it's not funny, it's funny because of how not funny it is—a groaner here and there for sure.

I don't want to get to deep in the weeds here on moral issues. But, in 2009 Borderlands referred to their "smaller targets" as midgets. They moved on from that term and called them "tinks" in 3. But, you were still marginalizing a section of the human population, Gearbox!!! I think they knew this. The small targets are now goblins. I don't mean that they call smaller than average humans goblins. No, they are goblins.

This Borderlands doesn't feel the need to marginalize somebody for a laugh. This Borderlands knows it's funny and knows you want to watch green goblins pop into orange loot.

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Thanks for reading! The above was written free form with no previous drafts. I gave it a once-over, but hey! it's a blog. At a minimum, I am committing to maintaining this blog for the next few months (once a week updates). If I stick with it, I've got big plans for more (and more planned out) content. But, y'all....let's take some babysteps.

Much Love,

WayLateGaming

I really like horror. I am the Frank Reynolds of genres when it comes to media. If there's a horror version of a particular media, this is probably my favorite. If there isn't a horror subgenre of your medium, I'm going to throw in a "level 4".

So, anyway. I started playing Call of Cthulhu the other day. I've had interest in this one and Sinking CIty since they launched, but the reception was less than stellar and I think at the time I just picked up Amnesia: Dark Descent and started descending once more.

Being way late to the game, I snagged a copy for $7 on a recent playstation store dealathon. I'm not that far into it.

The opening was incredible. Like, full of promise that this thing is going to scare me silly and be a pretty interesting take on the tabletop Call of Cthulhu which I recently had the pleasure of dipping my toes into this past year. I'm a seasoned horror junkie, and it "got me" in the first ten minutes. I was super impressed that they managed to full on jump scare me that quickly.

After the opening is the intro. I liked it enough. A little bit of choice but also not a lot of choice, but I was encouraged by the leveling system—encouraged that I would be able to play this game with a bit of personal style in a classic "pick brains or brawn" and "do you occult?" kind of way.

Here's the part where everything came to a not entirely screeching halt. Once I made it into the "game proper" and the first real 'level' area, I started to bump into people, and things, and boundaries, and very heavily directed movement that is made to feel like choice.

I am fully aware that this is not a dealbreaker for some. In fact, it's not a dealbreaker to me; you just need other parts of your game to be on point to make up for the fact that I feel like I'm playing an animated choose your own adventure book, but the choices always simply lead to the next page.

Let's talk some good though. The atmosphere so far is really pretty good. It isn't the most polished looking thing, but that almost works for it in this context. Good lovecraft tends to feel at least a bit grimy. There is choice when it comes to how much you explore, and you are definitely rewarded for that exploration. It could be my neurosis, but the areas aren't that big—I explored everything. In doing so, I unlocked a number of chat options that wouldn't have been available otherwise. But this almost served the purpose of making me feel like, if I'm not in the mood to somewhat slowly walk through every inch of this world, then I should shelve it for now. SO I DID.

EDIT June 1st.... y'all, I dropped the ball. This meaty intro was all going well until I was totally way late to publishing it. I had more and different planned for this post. But, in the interest of publication—it's going live "as is"

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Thanks for reading! The above was written free form with no previous drafts. I gave it a once-over, but hey! it's a blog. At a minimum, I am committing to maintaining this blog for the next few months (once a week updates). If I stick with it, I've got big plans for more (and more planned out) content. But, y'all....let's take some babysteps.

Much Love,

WayLateGaming

Lately, I've been in a bit of an RPG mood. Clearly.

I'm pretty late to the Witcher 3, though I've tried a few times not to be as late. I also did arrive late to Dark Souls 3, but I was late to that a while ago. Elden Ring—I actually started playing on launch, but I'm pretty late to getting through it I suppose (I still haven't).

Let's talk about this winding road of death, pain, and skill checks.

I had been playing Elden Ring, as I mentioned, since launch. I love it. Oh my goodness is it a glorious game. I likely don't have to tell you this, so I won't get too deep into it. But yeah, Elden Ring is a great game. I personally think an argument could be made that it is the best video game (?) that humans have developed thus far.

Having said all of that, I started feeling ohmygoodnesslonely as I traipsed through the lands between. I think this feeling of isolation is one of the reasons that Elden Ring succeeds so hard—it really does transport you to a different world. So, I decided to combat the lonely feelings by popping in another of FromSoft's masterpieces, Dark Souls 3.

What I loved about this: Switching back to something I know in and out gave me the satisfying feeling of deftly leveling up and cruising through an unforgiving world. It also made me miss Elden Ring after a measely 10 hours (I am not gud enough to complete DS3 in less). So, I honestly just jumped right back into Elden Ring with a new character.

This actually brings me to a point that I plan to expand on down the line. To me, FromSoft games are meant to be enjoyed by the hour, not by the levels completed. My first FromSoft experience was Bloodborne and I DID NOT FINISH with my original character.

Essentially, I did a ton of learning over 30 hours as I made it probably a bit more than halfway through the game—yeah, I know pretty slow, right? Then, after figuring out the system, what scales with what, and getting a better grasp of what I still didn't know I rolled a new character and did traipse through and finish the game in probably 20 or so hours.

With the level of engagement I felt over those 30 hours where I didn't even see nearly half of the content of the game, I already felt like I had "got my money's worth". And I would have felt this way even if I hadn't picked it up heavily discounted at $20 (it pays to be late!). As an adult, my entertainment purchases are all about how many hours I can get out of something. I don't care if I finish something. Unless it grabs me enough that I "have to finish it".

This is a huge part of the reason why AAA games that clock in at 8-10 hours of "story content" just aren't going to be bought by me until they are years in the past and many dollars lower than $60.

One more point on this before I end the preamble. I bought Sekiro a year after it released. It killed me to wait for it. I watched all the YouTubers slaying that Ape and just kept thinking, "I can wait". After a year of waiting, I bit on the first decent discount I could grab on it (I think $20 off). Sekiro is the FromSoft game I have made it the least far in. I really struggled with some of the subtle mechanics differences between the games. BUT! I've clocked in a good 20-30 hours already, and I feel completely satisfied with that.

If you're going to make a game where a decent percentage of your audience will only make it so far through the game, you'd better make every bit of content incredible. In my eyes, they have succeeded on this front in every game from them I've played (I have only spent 5 hours in DS2 but I don't know whose fault that is yet. Let you know when I try again).

PREAMBLE COMPLETE

So, I've mostly been playing the Witcher 3 this week. I went on that FromSoft journey, and I've got a couple of fun builds I can jump in on at any time in Elden Ring. But I was craving a bit more "movie in my videogame" and Witcher 3 felt like a decent contender.

Man, is it ever. I likely don't have to tell you how good any of the games are that I've been playing this week. Honestly, they're all great and exceed in areas that most games fail. I will say this though, I have had a difficult time getting into the Witcher. This is not my first attempt at this game. I did try it before the Netflix series started, but didn't make it very far (~6 hours). Then I'm watching this pretty damn good show on Netflix and figure I should give the game another shot. At the time, COVID was just rearing its ugly head in the world and I didn't have a switch yet (read: was not able to jump on the Animal Crossing Wagon with the rest of the world). Attempt number 2 informed that the game was indeed good, but you (I) have to be in a certain mood for it.

That mood came this week, and I am currently 10-12 hours into this save file. Really enjoying it.

It's interesting, the game is a bit older, but feels decently new still. There are a few mechanics issues that just feel a bit dated— sometimes navigating the world is abit clunky. In order to interact with most things, I seem to need to be absolutely still and not touching the left stick. More or less every game, at this point, would not be built with this issue.

I'm also playing on a newer TV this time around (but nothing overly fancy). I must point out that, for whatever reason, the game runs much smoother for me on this TV. In the past, using Witcher senses always made the surroundings feel very last gen (even though these graphics still kick most of what Nintendo is able to put up on the switch). For whatever reason, this doesn't happen on this TV. It's hard to explain exactly, but if you know the thing I'm talking about, apparently the TV you use makes a difference.

I did myself a favor on this one. I started on a save that was already a few hours in. Because I've tried this game a handful of times, I am so initimately aware of the various tutorials that come with the first few hours. Skipping them really helped me get to the meat of the game—and it's likely the reason it "stuck" this time.

One of the things that is making this play through so great is because I've finally made it to the part (and it's not even that far in) where you've got a lot of freedom to decide how you advance the story, your level, your wallet, and your powers. Once the world opens up like this, the game really becomes alive.

I can now travel to any number of small villages and hamlets, read a bulletin board, and get on with cleansing the world of monsters at my lesiure. This is really great because I feel ecnouraged to explore, but I also have a plethora of worthwile quests that I can hone in on at any time.

The Witcher's open world feels much more meaningful to me than Assassin's Creed Odyssey did. There are a number of reasons why I think this is the case. Here are a few:

The voice acting and character animations in the Witcher are just sodarngood. All of the scenes I have come across are well acted and well animated. I did not find this to be the case in Odyssey. The Witcher also does a better job of offering a world that has meaningful quests to complete.

If you read this kind of content, you've already heard tons of people complain about the fetchquests and meaningless dribble that Odyssey can sometimes throw at you. I don't want to beat a dead horse (sorry, Roach), but yeah, the Witcher does a better job with this.

(Sidenote, I DO NOT feel that I have given Odyssey enough of a try, but I haaaave started it four separate times just to make it a few hours in and feel bored. Maybe I'll come around to it wayyy later ;)

The combat in Witcher is just better. I could see somebody having a preference for Odyssey (would love to hear from ya!), but the depth and flexibilty that the Witcher's systems offer is just unmatched by ACO.

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Thanks for reading! The above was written free form with no previous drafts. I gave it a once-over, but hey! it's a blog. At a minimum, I am committing to maintaining this blog for the next few months (once a week updates). If I stick with it, I've got big plans for more (and more planned out) content. But, y'all....let's take some babysteps.

Much Love,

WayLateGaming