#as opposed to like bombing the tag with whatever i just wrote

[ddeongies]

do you have any plans for when you might release the choreo au?

hello!! there are a couple of possibilities with choreo, and i'm not 100% sure yet since i think it'll depend on my progress with nmau/quiet afternoon crush!

i've currently been focusing really hard on choreo since i got super inspired about it, so i haven't been working on anything else. ideally i'll manage to keep focusing on posting nmau while i finish and edit choreo in the background, so i won't be posting it for a little while... but there's definitely a chance i end up double posting the stories if i end up falling behind on nmau because of how much i've been writing choreo

idk if that makes sense!! i'm obsessed with writing choreo right now and really wanna post it, but i'm trying to hold onto it for a bit so i can maintain some sort of consistency with posting 😅

[evilisk-played]

Games in May (2020)

aka Uncharted Collection (and Mortal Kombat) May

Uncharted 1: Drake’s Fortune System: PS4 (PS3 Remaster)

This was a surprisingly solid game. Yeah it’s aged a bit, especially compared to later titles in the rest of the series, but I honestly feel like it’s got it charms.

I think the most amazing thing for me, personally, is that this game released in the era of the early PS3. I actually had a PS3 at launch (and I specifically had it here in Australia, where the laughable “599 USD” was a painful “999 AUD” price tag) and it’s nuts to me that this game came out when it did. Back then, exclusives either ran really poorly, from a technical standpoint (i.e. Genji, Heavenly Sword, Lair) or ran fine, but were still very much stuck in the PS2 era of game design. The PS3 renaissance hadn’t quite started when Uncharted 1 released (that definitely only happened around 2009 / 2010 with titles like Little Big Planet 1, inFamous 1, God of War 3, Demon’s Souls, Uncharted 2 etc.) so it’s honestly impressive that the game is as solid as it is.

But yeah. Even without knowing the history and context of this game, I think Uncharted 1 is a pretty solid first game. If nothing else, it’s easily the most “game-y” of all the Uncharted games.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves System: PS4 (PS3 Remaster)

I have a weird history with this game. Uncharted 2 was actually my starting point into this series and I... actually didn’t like it initially. Part of it was hype. I don’t buy into hype anymore but at the time I did, and it ruined a lot of games I would have otherwise enjoyed thanks to inflated expectations. The other part of my dislike was just that I didn’t really *get* it. I didn’t really have an appreciation for Uncharted’s core gameplay loop of seamless, environmental platforming, its gunplay or its set pieces.

I actually wrote off the entire series as not for me... until I got Uncharted 4 for Christmas some years ago. I was starving for games at the time, so I ended up playing it and... I actually really enjoyed the game, for whatever reason. Now I’m here playing the Uncharted Collection (which I also got for free albeit thanks to Covid rather than familial generosity) and... while I think I can appreciate Uncharted 2 a lot more, it’s still not my favorite game.

Like I said, I actually have more of an appreciation for this game now that I’ve actually experienced Uncharted 1. I can actually see where all the improvements are (like with the variety of locations, enemy types, new / improved mechanics like canister bombs and melee etc.) and I actually like the breakneck pacing of the game... even if I think the game gets way too long in the tooth by the end.

It’s still not my favorite (that’d either be Uncharted 4 or Uncharted Lost Legacy) but I have a greater appreciation for the game that I initially didn’t.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception System: PS4 (PS3 Remaster)

It’s still a solid game but it’s definitely weak for an Uncharted game

The game’s biggest issue for me is the pacing. I don’t want to get too deep in, but Naughty Dog, the developers, basically admitted to writing the game’s big set pieces first, and then justifying them with writing (as opposed to developing the game and set pieces concurrently), and it really, really shows, like with that huge Ship Graveyard sequence which, is cool, but also has zero influence on the plot. It’s very much stop and go for the entire game, and then the game just ends, and the ending isn’t particularly satisfying either.

It’s a shame too I really liked the first third of the game. I really liked Talbot and Marlowe as villains for most of the game. I liked the cozy adventure serial feel that the game has over Uncharted 1 and 2′s action movie feel. The Ship Graveyard is a damn good set piece, even though it probably should have been DLC. And Cutter is great. Him and his interactions with Drake are hilarious.

It’s a shame that the game’s pacing just stumble around before tripping near the finish line.

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath System: Well...

It's kinda cheating, because I didn't actually play this and only watched the Story Mode, but I just really love me some watching fighting game story modes... (also this is my blog so I'll do what I want)

I don’t really want to get into it, but MK11 Aftermath's story is just MK11's story but way less interesting. MK11′s original story mode was boring for how it threw out everything interesting in MKX in favor of MK1-3 nostalgia, but this takes the MK1-3 nostalgia and throws out it for Shang Tsung nostalgia specifically.

On the one hand, it’s not the worst thing in the world. Netherrealm Studio kinda did Shang Tsung dirty in MK9, so seeing him come back with a vengeance is nice. On the other hand, I literally cannot help but feel that this whole story mode was just a vehicle for Netherrealm to flex the fact that they got Cary-Hiroyuki Tokugawa (aka the actor for Shang Tsung from the 90′s Mortal Kombat movie) to bring his likeness to MK11.