So I beat Stray and Venba this week. I had played most of Stray before and could have sworn I beat it, but apparently I never finished it. I can’t even remember why tbh. Anyway, decided to start from scratch and loved every bit of it. Even the ending was fantastic. I know a lot of people want a sequel from this, but honestly, I think it was perfect as-is. Unless the team has a great idea for a sequel, I wouldn’t want them to just churn out something just for the sake of it. I highly recommend it if you love immersive worlds. The detail and care put into each location is amazing, and it’s one of the most beautiful games out there. I beat it in about 5 and a half hours with plenty of time exploring but not getting 100%.
As for Venba, I loved it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s short. I finished it in just under 2 hours, but I loved every bit of it. It’s more narrative than cooking, as in the cooking parts are in service of the narrative, rather than the reverse. Don’t go into it expecting kitchen chaos. I wrote a whole review post here if you’d like to read more of my thoughts.
As for this weekend, I’m going to be playing Bleak Sword DX on my Steam Deck. I wish it would come out for PlayStation (or at least Android), but I’m assuming that Apple’s original exclusivity deal is limiting their release options. Playing this on my living room TV in higher res would be ideal.
And finally, I am still near the end of Uncharted: Lost Legacy, so if I can get some TV time from my wife and kid I’ll hopefully drive that one to completion. Very excited to see how it ends. This game definitely holds up with the PS5 upgrade. So much detail.
Anyway, what are your plans for this weekend? Let us know below!
That’s a nice list of games. I agree with you, Stray doesn’t need a sequel, but if they have a good idea, sure, I would love to play it.
Bleak Sword DX is on my wishlist, for some reason I didn’t think you would like it. 😀
As for me, I have already mentioned my games in my thread, but one game I didn’t mention is Alienation. I am playing it with my kid, and we are having lots of fun with it. But with his school re-opening, we weren’t able to play it last week, and may not get chance this week, but I still consider the game part of what we are playing.
Why doesn’t Bleak Sword DX seem up my alley? I hope it’s not as hard a dark souls. I just love the aesthetic of it. Isn’t Alienation a “sequel” to dead nation? I played the hell out of Dead Nation on the PS4. It got hard though and I never beat it.
I don’t know, just the feel I got. 😀
Yeah, it’s by same devs (Housemarque), and Alination was the next game, after Dead Nation. I played Dead Nation a bit, but it isn’t properly supported on PS5, so would crash after each level. Also, enjoying Alienation more.
I love housemarque. Played the shit out of resogun. Still haven’t pulled the trigger in Returnal. So many 50% offers I’ve let slip by, so I might just fold and get it on the next one, or wait for PS+
I’ve beaten the first 2 worlds of Bleak Sword today and I like it…but not as much as I thought I would. Levels are short. Very short. It was an apple arcade game so I kinda get it, and it’s not too difficult (yet). I didn’t die until the second world. The third world looks like a change of pace and there’s like 12-14ish worlds I think, so maybe I’m just early. I’m at the point in the game where parrying is becoming essential, but up until now I’ve been able to force most encounters. As long as I beat all the enemies before I lose my health, I start the next encounter with a full bar, so getting hit doesn’t really matter early on. Granted, I’m playing on the lowest difficulty. Also, if you die, you don’t restart the world, just the level. You have one chance to beat it to keep your lost XP and items (kinda like hollow knight), but other than that there isn’t a downside to dying. You can only carry 2 items at a time (so far).
I loved the CRT aesthetic in trailers but in gameplay I had to turn off chromatic abberation, bloom, and depth of field. It was bothering my eyes.
Enemies are cool. It’s fun when a new one pops up and you don’t know what the strategy is to beat them. I’ll let you know my thoughts as I delve deeper