#in a fantasy world that is less video gamey

[qzwrites]

i have decided that arai can actually sense magic. he can't use it, it's probably some type of second sight, but it's like. just for magic.

he is as surprised by this as anyone because he thought he was just good at identifying enchantments because he's had so much practice appraising shit for the thieves' guild

but what is happening is in fact him getting a general feel for the magic on something and going "yeah that's a water purification bucket" which like. that is NOT how that spell is constructed, but it IS how that spell FUNCTIONS. beale and taryn are like how the fuck did you know that. he's like, come on you guys, it's an enchanted bucket. what are your options here. "technically infinite" nah bro it's a bucket of clean water or it's a bucket of poisons you. those are the options.

and like. he's not WRONG but also he did pick out this enchanted bucket from a room full of absolute junk, including regular buckets. and he's like, well i mean i can TELL it's enchanted, duh. and when they're like "how" he's like. uhhh. idk. it just is?

taryn is like ARAI THAT IS NOT NORMAL and beale is like FINALLY SOMEONE WHO GETS IT and arai is just like idk what to tell you! it's a magic bucket!!!

[valtsv]

wait hi you made the magic post so yes what is your opinion on eragon if you’ve read it?

i think that it's a very decent fantasy novel with a lot of potential considering that the first book was written when the author was 16 years old. it does fall victim to a lot of fantasy cliches and does at times feel derivative of existing popular scifi and fantasy stories like star wars, the lord of the rings, etc. which is a shame because it has a lot of really good and interesting worldbuilding, characters and plotlines and that can be overlooked as a result. eragon is unfortunately overshadowed by pretty much every other character, too, which can make it difficult to read at times because literally everyone is more interesting than our protagonist and i want to read more about them and less about him. also the amount of doctor who references felt... unnecessary at times. and there are some plot threads and implications of further lore behind certain characters, things and events that get brought up but never really given any sort of satisfying conclusion or explanation (angela the herbalist's entire character in particular falls victim to being too mysterious and unexplained to the point that it felt like paolini just let her do things because it was cool and never intended to explain them. which isn't the end of the world, but past a certain point it stops being funny and gets really frustrating). there were also some pacing issues at times, especially in the later books it felt like sometimes there was a lot of filler being used to pad out chapters so they didn't get to the final battle too quickly, and then the final confrontation ended up feeling a bit rushed and video-gamey.

all that being said, i absolutely love so many things about eragon. as i said, there are SO many interesting supporting characters i really enjoyed - nasuada was one of my absolute favorites; a black woman in a position of leadership with a well developed character and story and relationships and goals was really really nice to see, especially in a fantasy novel, and her pov chapters were probably some of the best in the book in my opinion. murtagh, arya, elva and roran were all really compelling characters too. and i found the magic system absolutely fantastic, it's probably one of my favorites of all time. i could write an entire essay on how interesting the concept of drawing on life energy to produce magic is and the ethical implications of it, not to mention the whole concept of the ancient language. i really loved how the books explored the consequences of misusing magic so thoroughly and answered a lot of questions in that regard (especially with elva; the idea of a child being forced to grow up too fast because they received a misworded blessing that, instead of shielding them from pain, caused them to experience everyone's agony simultaneously was SO fucked up and horrifying and absolutely delightful to read about as a result). the descriptions of different settings were also really cool; i always enjoyed reading the sections that introduced you to a new setting, especially those of the dwarven kingdom. and although it was far from being the next tolkien, it was nice to see consistent attempts at creating a fantasy language.

and then, of course, there's the dragons. i don't really have any complaints there. they're magnificent beasts and i really enjoyed that they had individual characters and weren't just dumb animals but an intelligent fantasy species with their own culture and history. my only issue is that the books never really seems able to decide how much agency they should have and how dependent on their riders they should be, but. eh. i can live with it i guess.

tl;dr it's a fun fantasy series with a LOT of good ideas that get a bit lost in the sauce sometimes but overall worth reading if you enjoy your fantasy with a heavy serving of cheese and surprisingly excellent worldbuilding.

[cavesalamander]

My brief thoughts on this season of anime!

Just a quick review of the ones I’d recommend and/or keep watching. I managed to find all of the below on Funimation or Crunchyroll or Youtube!

Horymia: (Yes) This is looking to be a very funny romcom slice of life style anime, and seems to be a fairly good one! Had me laughing a lot. The Main couple are a nerdy quiet boy who’s actually dumb as a sack of bricks using his disheveled appearance to hide his tattoos and piercings, and a popular pretty girl who’s actually a total homebody. Their friends seem to have a lot of potential to be fleshed out as the series progresses and I look forward to seeing how it goes!

So I’m a Spider, So What?: (Yes) Whooo another isekai (excited)! This time a girl and her entire class!? Get isekai’d in a massive explosion. The main character reincarnates as a trash monster in a dungeon and must fight her way up the food chain just to survive. Meanwhile her friends who have mostly reincarnated as Cool Humans or the occasional elf or baby dragon, have mostly found each other, and want to figure out what happened/why and if they’re all okay. It’s genuinely pretty funny, though leans a little too hard sometimes on the gamey aspects of this new world. I think it may get darker as it goes along too.

Mushoku Tensei: (No) Whooo another isekai (derogatory). 34 yo old man gets reincarnated and uses his worldly experience to Learn Magic Fast and creep on his mom and prepubescent tutor. If you can stomach that stuff, it actually has a fair amount of potential? It did set itself up to touch on some interesting stuff down the road, but I’m kind of Over the horny toddler/young boy trope and it kinda just seems like the protagonist is Just Awesome At Everything but not in a remotely charming way.

Cells at Work Code Black: (Yes) If you liked Cells at Work, this is that but dingier, and is able to tackle some darker themes - like what stress, smoking, drinking, and probably eventually STDs can do to your body.

Kemono Jihen: (Yes) I don’t wanna explain TOO much about the plot of this one because it looks to be a mystery series, and the first episode sets it up the characters very very well. A man from the city is called to a rural town where animals are being mysteriously killed and found rotting. He’s tasked with finding and killing the perpetrator, assumed to be a monster of some kind. It does the horror very well, and even in the first episode manages some twistyness.

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter: (No) Even for a blatant fan service anime this one is just......... stupid. It might have a scrap of joy to it if the protagonist were anything other than a boring sycophant. His harem just all seems to be random girls who’s singular personality traits are to be in love with him in various stereotypical ways, that he just uses to min max his Cool Stats. But like, it’s not even self aware enough to make that into an interesting premise.

Sk8: (Yes) It’s a racing anime that seems super stylish and fun and very well animated. The protagonists have some cool chemistry already, and it really leans into the Underground Illegal Racing part of the fun - all the various characters who battle in death defying races through this abandoned mine, all have seemingly ordinary day jobs. Definitely worth a shot if that sounds up your alley.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies moved to a starter town?: (Probably) Okay so the premise is just there in the title and is actually pretty fun. Think: a random NPC who is considered pretty weak where the monsters are lv 50 moving somewhere where the monsters are scary at lv 5, shenanigans ensue. The MC boy is hilariously oblivious to the fact that anyone with a shred of sense can see he’s insanely over leveled to the area, and just trying to be nice and polite to everyone ^u^. The tentative nature of my recommendation is that it is kind of leaning harder on the Girls are Obsessed With Him train than is ideal. How much it depends on that as opposed to utilizing the premise to its fullest extent will have an enormous bearing on how fun the show is to watch going forward.

Ex-Arm: (Absolutely not but yes) It’s a fucking train wreck.

Heavens Design Team: (Yes) God decided to outsource creating animals to a team of angels, and works as a client giving weird ass requests for the angels to fill. Hilarity ensues, and it is peak edutainment to boot. It’s so much fun learning weird shit about animals, or trying to guess the animal these seemingly random train of failed attempts leads to.

Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist-: (No) It has a promising premise and some good moments. The main characters are solving these weird “diseases” that people get by finding the actual emotional cause and using magic of some kind to monkey paw it into a resolution. This could be really fun and interesting, but something about the execution just... falls flat? Like maybe it picks up as the season goes on but for now it’s not rly worth it.

Vlad Love: (Yes) I was going through the list of anime this season and was like wtf is this and literally just now watched episode 1. It’s about a girl with a blood donation kink and her vampire girlfriend. Literally. It’s rly funny and over the top ridiculous but like, gay vampires.

Back Arrow: (No) It’s like... fine. It’s about these two warring kingdoms surrounded by a wall with a mountain range between. They worship the wall as god, and occasionally get gifts from beyond it, in the form of mech suits they use to fight each other in. One day a boy shows up from beyond the wall in one of those suits and no memories of anything and he wants to get back. Which... could be promising I guess? But something about the show just didn’t grab my attention.

Skate-Leading Stars: (No) It’s like Yuri on ice if it was less gay and less well written I guess...? The first episode set up the Drama competently enough, but I just... couldn’t give a shit.

Project Scard: (No) For some reason part of Tokyo has been turned into a post apocalyptic hellscape where people just murder each other. They also have super powered tattoos and use them to fight each other. Animation is very similar to Handshakers - which is an Aesthetic that may not appeal to some. The first episode didn’t rly do much for me but I could see it going somewhere if it tries.

Wave!!: (No) Might have been a tentative yes if I hadn’t gone on and watched the second episode. First ep went hard with the queerbaiting cause they want to be the new Free! but with surfing, but Ep 2 just forgot all about that entirely. Dialogue is mostly boring and there’s like 3 sets, which becomes painfully obvious very quickly by ep 2.

Idoly Pride: (No) Literally looks like they ripped off the waifus of a bunch of other more popular anime and made an idol anime with the most basic ass idol plot. Nothing exceptional here.

Gekidol: (undecided) It’s an idol anime... set after a mysterious apocalyptic event? It’s mostly so far seemed intriguing as hell but not my jam. Mysterious craters destroyed parts of Japan, and its rebuilding and the MCs wanna bring light to the world. Maybe aliens exist? Idk! I’m intrigued.

I*Chu: (No) Another idol anime but this time it’s cute boys! Idk maybe this is a decent idol anime but it rly didn’t grab me and idol stuff isn’t usually my jam. I couldn’t tell anything exceptionally unique about this one from just the first episode.

WIXOSS Diva: (No, but) I don’t normally watch spin-offs of series but I didn’t realize until halfway into this that it was one cause Crunchyroll didn’t attach it to the core line. It’s like... magical girl battle idols in VR! Which honestly if you’re a fan of that it might actually be worth checking out.(edited)

Idolls!: (No) Another idol anime! But this one uses mocap 3d models. Phoned in plot line delivered by a weird tiki statue that tells the girls what to do. Seems extraordinarily low budget, and more just a way to sell music. The whole episode happened in a single set and  was basically just... girls want to make it big as idols... oh no... gotta book a stage! Yay they got one! Now must get an audience! Like... ok

Hortensia Saga: (No but) Sword and sorcery fantasy setting that’s mostly sword, main character is a princess masquerading as a male knight alongside the son of her dead parents’s also dead bodyguard. The first episode is very lore heavy and felt kinda like the prologue to a video game. So it ended up feeling a little expository and trope laden, but it has potential. Seems a bit Game of Thronesy? Wasn’t like... bad or anything, so if it’s your thing you might enjoy it.

Otherside Picnic: (Yes) I think it’s gay first of all, two girls going exploring / treasure hunting / monster hunting in a bizarre mirror world to their own. Girls are cute, it’s very interesting premise and writing seems solid.

Wonder Egg Priority: (Yes) It deals with some HEAVY themes? But it’s... a bit of a psychological horror but in a way that feels very like it’s dealing with some of the real life issues. The main character girl comes across as neurodivergent, and it’s just... idk man the first episode was good and left me wanting more.

[spicynbachili1]

Review: Red Dead Redemption 2

Into the sundown, fellers

Getting misplaced in one other world is a wonderfully great way for some folks to deal with issues in actuality.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind acquired me by means of some actually robust occasions: it doesn’t matter what occurred, on the finish of the day I might loosen up and lose myself in Vvardenfell till I dozed off. That was all the best way again in 2002.

Open world video games have significantly advanced since then. Rockstar is proof of that.

Purple Useless Redemption 2 (PS4 [reviewed on a PS4 Pro], Xbox One) Developer: Rockstar Studios Writer: Rockstar Video games Launched: October 26, 2018 MSRP: $59.99

Purple Useless Redemption 2 makes the ballsy and presumably complicated transfer of pivoting itself as a sequel in identify and a prequel within the grand timeline of the Purple Useless world. Whisking us away to America’s frontier in 1899, this iteration really precedes John Marston’s journey by 12 years, permitting for a decidedly totally different snapshot of the previous west.

The late 19th century is not precisely a interval that is explored all that always because it’s after the extra common Reconstruction and California Gold Rush eras. Below President William McKinley the mythos of the “wild west” is starting to fade amid rising assist for the temperance and progressive actions: in all, an enchanting glimpse into US historical past. Enter the outlaw Arthur Morgan, our “hero” and proponent of the well-known Van der Linde crew, led by the unstable and typically well-meaning Dutch.

As Dutch’s right-hand man on the top of the gang’s notoriety, you are type of a giant deal from the get-go. Though we in the end know what occurs to the lads in Dutch’s crew by the use of Purple Useless Redemption, what we get here’s a master-crafted character research not not like the one Vince Gilligan is presently giving us with Higher Name Saul within the wake of Breaking Unhealthy. Arthur is not fairly as fascinating as former protagonist Marston out of the gate. He is much less bombastic, extra calculating in his thought course of. In that approach, he is a greater conduit for the participant and extra of a gradual burn.

The world round him is equally grounded. Two of the cardinal sins of contemporary open world video games are bloat and excessive gaminess, each of which steadily take you out of the fantasy. Ubisoft is usually responsible of the previous, filling maps to the brim with pins and compelled factors of curiosity to increase playtime. The latter is a transgression that many studios are responsible of in a misguided try to steadiness simulation and arcade fundamentals. Purple Useless Redemption 2 by no means actually falls into both of these traps. Now there are 144 cigarette card collectibles and loads of small issues to rummage round for if that is your factor (in addition to stamina and well being “core” meters to handle), however bloat is not the focus.

Comparably there are invisible or in any other case delicate meters that dictate something from “honor” (how folks react to you) to bonuses like extra loot, however they are not apparent. Purple Useless Redemption 2 goes for the real endeavor of the facilitation of bromances with the camp system (which has flashes of Closing Fantasy XV or the droves of relationship-centric JRPGs in current reminiscence) and backs up these relationships with sturdy mission design. As a rule you are going to be saddling up with mates or new acquaintances, combating, or working alongside them.

You may be combating quite a bit, which is arguably one of the best bit the sport has to supply. Useless Eye (learn: tremendous slo-mo imaginative and prescient) returns and though the idea is as previous as mud (17 years faraway from Rockstar-published Max Payne), it permits for the additional beautification of a number of the extra hectic confrontations (as does the first-person viewpoint). It additionally is aware of when to figuratively decelerate. There is a bunch of role-playing (RP) sort issues that may maintain folks busy for nicely over 100 hours. Fishing, poker, beauty alterations, that sort of stuff. It is by no means in-your-face, merely there if you’d like it.

Rockstar threw an insane amount of cash on the manufacturing of Purple Useless Redemption 2 and it exhibits. There are scores of musical tracks helmed by the proficient Woody Jackson, a few of which are actually tuned to particular missions. Hell, it has roughly 200 various kinds of wildlife and every had distinctive sounds recorded for them. (I’d be remiss to not a minimum of point out the crunch controversy and Rockstar’s response with the intention to make up your individual choices, even when it did not straight affect this evaluation.)

So are all of those stats bullshit? Nicely in my effort to completely dig by means of the large 92GB file dimension (on PS4), they’re principally justified. The important thing factor to recollect is that Purple Useless Redemption 2 is not simply comprised of open ranges and fields. Every particular person metropolis feels lively and the go-go nature of the story permits us to move into locations like torched villages and snowy mountaintops. Amid all of these grand gestures, the smaller particulars matter too. There’s spectacular penmanship on show inside the pages of in-game journals when Rockstar might have gone with the better route of a conventional typeface. Vendor menus seem like an actual Sears, Roebuck and Firm catalogs.

All of that does come at a small price, like a several-minute load firstly and roughly 15-second restarts after failures/deaths. It feels like no time in any respect, but it surely’s extra concerning the parameters concerned: you will principally encounter the previous situation as your paper-thin allies are killed, glitch right into a bottomless pit, or get snagged by an invisible rock and fall off their horse, immediately failing a mission. Then there’s the everyday open world snags like unusual animations and odd physics that may trigger on the spot deaths.

The gear-swapping radial wheel will be finicky and never work precisely the way you need it to. There’s additionally some foolish moments that require suspension of disbelief; like when your crew robs somebody sporting the identical garments they all the time put on, whereas calling you by your actual identify, and anticipating to not be caught as a result of they’ve small bandannas over their mouths. These are all minor complaints and in contrast to another open world video games, do not dominate or considerably break Purple Useless Redemption 2.

As I discovered myself wandering aimlessly for the umpteenth time, coping with a few of these random annoyances, it hit me why I used to be so related to this world: Rockstar is not afraid to throw fixed conflicts your approach as a result of they know the minute-to-minute gameplay can assist it. Gunplay is improbable (Rockstar has just about all the time nailed it), horse fundamentals are slick, random occasions/skirmishes maintain issues thrilling, and the serene but complicated environments are the spine for all of it. 

Purple Useless Redemption 2 is the epitome of ambition and like most issues Rockstar, will meet the expectations related to it. With the entire developments for the reason that final Purple Useless and the whole lot they’ve realized from Grand Theft Auto V below their belt, the collection is in a greater place, in a position to present a extra pure and fewer gamey world to discover.

[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher. The online component is coming later this month and is not part of this assessment.]

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      Purple Useless Redemption 2 reviewed by Chris Carter

9.5

SUPERB

An indicator of excellence. There could also be flaws, however they’re negligible and will not trigger large injury. How we rating:  The destructoid critiques information

        from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/review-red-dead-redemption-2/

[terryblount]

Control Review

Remedy Games hasn’t made that many games in the past 20+ years the developer has been around, but each time that they do release one it’s been pretty special.  While this is the studio that brought you the original Max Payne games, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and now Control… each of these games has brought something new to the table.  Whether it was the new gameplay mechanics of bullet-time or Alan Wake’s flashlight, things have always been somewhat interesting when it comes to the gameplay mechanics of Remedy games.  Control is no different, it certainly stands out from other products that Remedy has released over the years, but also feels very familiar to their most recent offerings in Alan Wake and Quantum Break.

It’s the kind of weird that you’ve come to expect from the developer

Remedy has established themselves as the developers that make weird, stylish games.  This has done well with the last two aforementioned series’.  They jumped into the world of FMV in their games, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.  Control is definitely another one of these.  It’s a weird mess of a story that places you in the shoes of a young woman who finds herself in a place called the Oldest House, which happens to be a hidden building in the middle of New York City where a supernatural threat of the Hiss looms. You become the new Director of a group called the Federal Bureau of Control and can wield a supernatural firearm called the Service Weapon which is your main source of gameplay as it is a third person shooter.  The Hiss are everywhere in the Oldest House and they have the ability to take over and possess the other agents in the building.  The story winds and turns with a little bit more about who you are and why you are there, but it really stays fairly mysterious up until the credits roll.

Less Linear than you’ve seen from Remedy in the past

Control is a little bit less linear than other Remedy games.  There’s a massive, multi-level map to explore, with numerous NPC characters to meet, side quests to tackle, blocked passages, and loot to uncover.  There are some aspects of a Metroid-vania style game here, but they are light.  There are Security Doors which require key cards and some areas can’t be accessed without having specific powers, but it never feels not obvious what you need to do.  Most of the stuff that is locked behind abilities really does just add more color to the world.  While the key cards are usually story items that you’ll get in a fairly linear fashion.  The video gamey bits are what keep you pushing forward in Control, but it’s also an incredibly stylish game with a dark weirdness to it.  The imagery, sounds, and general presentation and mysterious story pull you in immediately as we found ourselves really wanting to learn about this world.  Unfortunately, everything does stay pretty vague in Control.  After watching the credits roll, I thought it was definitely worth the time spent, but I did feel a little unfulfilled in so much being left to collectible files that you can read or FMV videos that you can watch along your journey.

Shooting and abilities give the combat some variety

Control is a third person shooter, but it’s not just a shooter.  There are plenty of abilities to learn as the Director.  Your supernatural abilities allow you to stabilize objects of power which you can then draw abilities from.  You’ll learn things like double jumps, levitation, telekinesis, and others which allow you to fight different types of enemies or reach different areas of the map.  Control is far-less linear than Remedy’s previous games.  There is the main path of the story, which you can really barrel down if you want.  But, there’s also a good bit of side content in this game.  Some of the side content is actually much more interesting than the actual main path and you’ll really miss some cool stuff if you don’t explore this world.  For example, the Hiss are the major threat in the game.  But, there are also others which a scientist is researching in an area called the Pit.  You don’t need to visit the Pit to beat Control, but if you do you’ll get treated to a massive boss fight against a giant mold monster. It’s stuff like this that make Control tough to digest.  Some of this side content is definitely must see, but putting off of the main path does make it unlikely that many will encounter it.  The rewards, whether on the main path or when exploring is points and materials to upgrade your character and weapons.

These points will funnel into your different abilities, making the stronger across the course of the game.  As you spend your trait points you will unlock more mod slots for your weapons and personal buffs.  The combat in Control is a mix between third person shooter and an ability focused game.  You’ll definitely be shooting your fair share of enemies, but you can also upgrade your different abilities to use a telekinetic push melee or unlock the ability to pick up and hurl items with your mind.  You can summon items around you as a shield, or levitate over the battlefield while raining down abilities or bullets.  The combat is varied and putting all of the abilities together really make it stand out.  This really doesn’t start clicking until you’re pretty deep into Control though.  The early parts are certainly more bullet-based, while the latter stages are focused on your powerful abilities or juggling back and forth between the two.  As enemies get tougher you’ll manage your ammunition in Service Weapon and your energy to use abilities.  I found myself in familiar patterns again and again.  Since there is no reload and everything runs off of a charge in Control, it always basically felt like I was shooting until I need to recharge the weapon and then using my abilities until the energy ran out.  By the time that energy ran out I was swapping back to the service weapon to repeat the process.  That coupled with dodging and levitating mechanics gave the combat a nice rhythm.  Control on the Xbox One did feel kind of like a PC game that was ported to consoles.  The aiming and targeting felt a bit rigid and not quite as smooth as some other third person shooters or action games.  Control does feature some incredible destruction physics in combat and in exploration phases.  The destruction makes all of your powers and abilities feel real and have a lasting impact on the world around you.

Main path story missions, side content, challenges, and agency missions… there is no shortage of things to do

Control is kind of structured in a unique way for a single player experience.  There are your aforementioned story and side mission content, but there are random missions where you’re given objectives that must be completed in a certain amount of time. They feel almost like a “daily challenge” that you’ll find in a multiplayer game.  There are challenges that can be tackled for rewards as well.  Kill a certain number of enemies without dying in a certain part of the Oldest House, and you’ll reward you.  Control definitely takes some of the engaging content from multiplayer games in terms of challenges and introduces them in a way that makes sense for a single player game.  The rewards are upgrade points and materials that will allow you to craft personal mods, weapon mods, and different weapon forms for the Service Weapon.

The Service Weapon does start out as a pistol, but it can evolve into multiple things.  While the actual size and shape of it changes only slightly, the firing mechanics and bullets that come out of it differ drastically from a beam to a burst rifle, or shotgun.  So long as you’re spending points on upgrading the weapon you’ll have no shortage of ways to kill enemies.  You can equip two of the weapon forms at once, and then outfit the weapon with up to three different mods which give you various buffs that compliment your playstyle.  There’s no shortage of these progression and upgrade items Control.  In fact, there’s actually quite a lot of loot in the game if you’re looking for it. There is a nice ramp of progression in the game from start to finish where the abilities that you learn and weapons you are using definitely make you feel more powerful in the end game than you did when you were bumbling around the halls of the Oldest House trying to piece together why you are there in the first place.

We played it on the “world’s most powerful console” and it was kind of a mess

Control is definitely a stunner when it comes to visuals and presentation, but on a technical level on the Xbox One X the game really feels like its pushing the console to its limits.  Taking away from the fun at times were smaller things like the map not loading when trying to pull it up until waiting for 15-20 seconds.  This in itself makes navigating the world more of a chore than it has to be.  Then there’s fast travel and loading into a new control point.  These points are effectively the checkpoints in the game and when you reach one or rest at one you’ll respawn from there if you happen to die.  Each and every single time I loaded into a new control point there was significant frame rate drops and slow down that was visible on screen on the Xbox One X.  It’s became pretty disappointing as the game got harder because it was a stark contrast from the rest of the game.  That’s not to say that Control didn’t chug at other spots.  Put too many enemies on the screen and the Xbox One X just felt like it was overloaded with the enemy counts and the ongoing effects.  It didn’t take away from my experience too much, but it’s definitely noticeable in a game as stylish as Control.

Anyone that liked or loved the Quantum Break or Alan Wake games will most certainly enjoy Control.  Remedy has certainly embraced their artistic sides for this game, taking more risks with their story telling than their last couple of games and doubling down on their penchant for including live actors as a story telling device.  If you’re not quite sure what to expect, it’s a dark, twisted, weird world full of things that don’t make any sense.   At times this feels ok, and refreshing that you don’t quite know where it’s going to end up, but it can be a little disappointing.  One thing’s for sure, it’s definitely a hell of a ride from start to finish.

The Verdict

Control is definitely Remedy’s best game since Alan Wake.  The sheer variety in the gameplay and fantastic presentation go a long way in making this an enjoyable experience.  The weird story and setting does a great job of setting the hook at the onset, but the payoff was a little underwhelming.

Control Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[dillatont]

Soundtrack Review: Owlboy

This was supposed to be a simple, easy exercise. Pick out a new-ish soundtrack (Owlboy- Check!). Listen, listen, and listen some more to the soundtrack (Check!) Bang out a nice, neat piece of piece of prose reviewing the soundtrack.

End check.

See, the thing is, it just hasn't worked out that easily. I had a nice lead written and everything, and I threw it out. My thoughts on the Owlboy soundtrack have proven to be complex, much like the soundtrack itself. It has proved to be a difficult little piece of writing. However, I would like to share it with you. My name here is J. Dillatont, and I love music, video games, and especially video game music. I'd like very much to share some thoughts along those lines as I review video game soundtracks.

We'll start with the soundtrack to Owlboy, which was just released to PC in October after an exceedingly long development cycle. What should you know about this soundtrack?

First of all, you should know this going in: you are going to feel like you are listening to a movie. The sound quality is that good. Composer Jonathon Geer uses a mix of live musicians and synthetic sounds (though you wouldn't know it), and the overall feel is just gorgeous. It sounds like you are in the theater for much of the time. That's because the soundtrack uses a lot of sounds and influences straight out of the cinema, and then backs it up with high-quality production values. You'll hear it in the opening Owlboy Title Theme, which sounds like it could have easily been the opening credits to a film, through the use of background vocals, strings, and live woodwinds. (Full disclosure: I found out while writing this review that one of said woodwind players was a good friend from college.) Really, the first 20-25 minutes of the soundtrack will feel like you are wandering around a movie theater, popping in on different styles and characteristics of films. As I listen, I feel like I'm specifically catching shades of John Williams, Tan Dun, Trent Reznor, and Igor Stravinsky (not technically a film composer, I know,  but go with it) popping up at varying times throughout the tracks, in addition to the more general "cinema" sounds. Geer has some real skill and real flair, and each piece in the early stages feels as if it's been crafted very carefully and with great attention to detail in orchestration and sound quality.

Now, I haven't played the game, so I really can't speak to how it meshes with the gameplay, but as a listening experience, this sound quality is certainly inviting. Even in the modern area of video game composition, with full access to live recordings and advanced recording technology, it's rare to find something as clear and as well-performed as the Owlboy soundtrack. It's not easy, if even possible, to tell when the live sounds end and the electronic sounds begin. (He only lists 8 performers on his website, and it's likely that there's SOME electronic work in here,  but it is really difficult to tell, save for when the track is supposed to sound "gamey", like Vellie, one of the main themes.) That's a real credit to the composer, and to the whole development team for bringing such an inviting and ambitious sound into their game. I can't emphasize enough that this soundtrack is well constructed, well-thought-out, well-orchestrated, and just full of a lot of great sounds. However, I did say that my thoughts on this game are complicated. Digging beyond the sound quality and looking at the emotional impact of the soundtrack brings a lot more depth to what I would like to say.

Let's be clear. This is a really, really, good soundtrack, and I like it quite a bit. And yet, having said all of this, I feel like it's missing a little bit of something. It took me a while to figure out what, and I'm not even 100% certain I'm even able to articulate it now, but it's definitely missing something.You might have noticed that I've mostly talked about the first 25 minutes of the soundtrack. There's quite a bit more music here, in fact- nearly 100 minutes in all. And, while the sound quality continues to be excellent and the orchestration continues to be excellent, the pieces seem to get a bit similar in tone and style as the game progresses. It never becomes boring, but it does lose the immense charm present within the soundtrack's first section (up through around "Buccanary's Shop" or so). Emotionally, it just gets a little bit....repetitive. (I believe I wrote "DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA" in my notes at more than one point in my initial listenings of the latter half of the soundtrack)

I have to emphasize here that the fact that I haven't played the game does matter quite a bit, because bad sound design can make even the most beautiful melody sound annoying after a while (and vice versa). My concerns may not play out during actual gameplay. But, as a pure listening experience, I don't get the same emotional impact listening to this as I do for some of my all-time favorites, and I don't find melodies sticking in my head after the fact like I would hope to. The emotional experience is just....missing something. To me, it doesn't feel like there is enough of a sense of tension and relief. Not that there's not tension. Rather, there's too much, and it doesn't feel like it is building progressively during the last 30-40 minutes of the soundtrack. It seems like there are a lot of situations of "Dramatic Battle Music" followed immediately by "Slightly less dramatic music, but we're probably going back into battle soon” towards the end. Then, the ending emotional payoff, to me, falls a little bit flat. I don't sense enough of the emotions I would expect to hear at the end of a game- relief, bittersweet happiness,joy- what should I feel? It's unclear to me here, and I can't help but come back to the emotional outpouring at the end of "Final Fantasy 8" as a good example of a track that does this: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkmP5LahPE). I just do not feel that same kind of emotion here, and I've not been able to establish the kind of emotional connection to the music as I would want to. I feel like, ultimately, as good as this soundtrack is, it suffers slightly from the fact that there are so many different cinematic musical styles because it doesn't establish any sort of sound that is unique to "Owlboy" as a game. So much of the music feels like something I've heard before. It's good, but it doesn't feel novel (again, excepting the first 25 or so minutes, which are without question my favorite part of the soundtrack)

Still, it's a great listening experience, criticism aside. Let's get a final breakdown:

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Top tracks in the game:

Vellie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICoL3-I3kmc),

Turtle Guardian Phase 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIkTCwuLIsI)

Floating Continent- Jungle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyD-zVeJRgo)

Dirk Battle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u76RrNLyGsc)

The Final Ascent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Ku12QrKDk)

Vellie in particular stands out not for what it is, but what it isn't. It isn't a track with live sounds, opting for more of a 16-bit feel instead. However, despite Geer's incredible orchestrations, THIS is the catchiest tune in the game. It's bouncy, upbeat, with a light and clear melody that nicely conveys the feel of, well, an owl-boy. When I listened to the soundtrack, this is the tune that stayed with me more than anything else. It's just delightful, though it is odd that an electronic track would be the game's best...but I did say the thoughts on this would be complicated, did I not?

Weakest tracks in the game:

Solus Battle Phase 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64TXvWX_lfQ)

Solus Battle Phase 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwq9vPzkhy8)

Solus Battle Final Phase (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APErdw8Ntog)

King Kaboon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQbR0BOSo_I)

I'm not a big fan of any of the three parts of Solus Battle, the game's final boss, though the third phase is definitely my least favorite track in the game. The end battle music just did not seem to inspire any emotion in me. No fear, no excitement, just....nothing. It reminds me in a lot of ways of Chrono Trigger, another game that has a great soundtrack with less-than-stellar ending boss music. (Mind you: being compared to Chrono Trigger is generally a very, very, good thing, and in so many ways, this soundtrack is of comparable quality to Chrono Trigger) So, to me, it's a somewhat bitter ending because of that.

OVERALL: 8.8/10

Concerns aside, this is definitely a soundtrack that is worth a listen, particularly if you like a strong cinematic sound in your listening rotation. I don't want to come across as having a harsh view about this soundtrack, because it's still really good, and much better than what you'll get in most games. Owlboy's soundtrack is beautifully orchestrated, and contains a lot of very interesting musical ideas. It's not perfect, but it's really well done, and would be more than worth your time and money to take a deeper dive into the world of the Owls.