Cloud-side's Blog - Apr to Jun 21 (17 followers)
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May27
Cloud's Chronicle Chapter 17Permalink
At first I was going to wait on Returnal to have a sale. As I’m still not used to the new £70 price point. So I either want to only buy games I really want or may wait on sales if it’s not a must for me. Returnal piqued my interest from a few articles and an early trailer. (All screen shots taken from my gameplay)

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I liked the sound of a slightly longer rouge lite - In terms of the run time. One thing it needs and I heard they are going to add is a check point / save point so you don’t have to do a 3 hour run non stop. As stopping to switch games or turn off PS5 ends the run. That’s the only real major criticism I can give this game.

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So far I’ve only made it to the 2nd Biome boss. Almost had him first time but died when he had 10% of his final health bar left. I started the fight having already lost the Astronaut (an extra life artifact)....

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Edit - coming back to writing the blog a day later. I passed the second boss on my second attempt and gained a useful tool, the grappling hook. Then on my next run with the grappling hook I bi-passed the second biome and got to the 3rd biomes boss. With an extra life (astronaut) and 2 health packs. I think if I go through all 3 biomes and build up extra artifacts it may put me in a better position to get past 3rd boss. Will have to see.

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The first thing you notice when you start the game is the stunning graphics and lighting which creates a really moody and eerie atmosphere. Plus the mystery of the planet you’re on and the time loop you are stuck in. The desolate alien planet occupied by strange creatures. Statues of the former occupants litter most the areas of the 3 biomes I have played so far

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The shooting and movement feel very smooth and responsive. Which is what you need for a 3rd person shooter take on the bullet hell and rouge-like genres. Dash and jumping and strafing to avoid various enemy shooting patterns.

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Parasites, malfunctions, malignant chests/pick ups and artifacts are added to spice up the formula and add different variables to each run. Parasites give you both a buff and debuff at the same time. So if you like the biff and don’t mind the debuff too much. You can make the choice to attach the parasite. Malfunctions are debuffs to your suit you get from parasites and malignant chests and items. You get a chance to get a malfunction from them each time you open or pick those items up. The malfunction requires a set task to accomplish before it will be fixed and the debuff removed. I.e kill so many enemies or pick up so many oblites (currency) etc etc

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Artifacts give you an upgrade most of them just for the run you are on. Some give you a permanent one for milestones like killing a biome boss. One artifact gave me a health limit upgrade every time I picked up or repaired a malfunction. So while most runs I usually avoid malignant chests items for the most part. I made a beeline for everyone I could find. Eventually getting my health to 200%. This was the run that I got to the third biome. So the risk and reward system in this game is very well implemented.

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So far I found the biggest wall was the first boss. Which took me 4/5 attempts before passing. I thought it would take even longer. I will see if and when I hit another wall. The third biome does seem like a hike in difficulty as expected. The final biome too I expect will be another wall. I’m excited to find out.

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Another recent thing I’ve noticed. Is finding corpses of other players and having the option to scavenge or avenge. Scavenge costs you ether (a rare currency). Avenge pits you against a tough enemy but will reward you with ether and usually a weapon drop that is sometimes 4 levels above your current one. A risk worth taking early into a new run.

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In the first biome a huge enemy which jumps in close and can kill you in a few hits. At first I thought this was the first boss as I died the first two times facing it. Turns out this was just a regular but difficult enemy. Each biome seems to have a one or a few of these rare and hard standard enemies. Usually you get a better weapon for beating them too or a consumable.

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This game is like one I have never played before though. With its unique mix of genres and outstanding visuals and game play. Also one thing that is stand out from other games. Especially when using a headset is the sound. The 3D audio which I thought was a gimmick at first to advertise a slight sound upgrade in the PS5. Is a game changer for audio in games. You can really tell a lot easier where the enemy is and it’s height from sound alone. This is a very welcome upgrade to audio. This is house marques first entry into the premium triple A game fold and they have taken a lot of love and care with it. I love house marques previous games :- resogun was a tonne of fun and I’ve played a little bit of Nex Machina too. I should get round to playing their other titles too.

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I would love to get the platinum on this game and I aim to do so. It would be right up there with Monster Hunter World and Destiny 2 for me. I have been padding out my score with easy plats last year and I want more quality and meaningful platinums for my collection and trophy case for pride of place. I don’t have the patience to have a profile of just pure quality games and get 100% in them all. Then one bad game or something you couldn’t finish would irritate me way too much. At the same time I don’t want one with nothing but easy plats and a lots of uncompleted games. I want the freedom to have some uncompleted games and some easy plats. As a middle ground though I want a mix of quality plats in there and I want my completion percentage at 70% minimum. It’s gonna take a while to get there though.

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Apart from that I’ve been playing It takes two in sporadic bursts. It’s a truly outstanding game and one I want to play again with another friend after this play through and get the platinum too. I’d be willing to play it a third time too I think.

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Going back to Returnal I would give it an 8 or 9 out of 10 so far. I'll plus 1 if they add in a save system for mid point runs. So you don't have to set aside 2/3 hours to play it and be locked into playing just this.

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Star Wars Squadrons is next months free PSN game. A great game but my habit of buying bargains in a sale and then not starting them as bite me on the ass again. Could of had this for free if I waited.

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Hope everyone has a good week.

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Posted by Cloud-side on 27 May 21 at 17:11 | Last edited on 19 August 21 at 22:07 | There are 2 comments on this blog post - Please log in to comment on this blog.
May04
Cloud's Chronicle Chapter 16Permalink
This is later than usual chapters as I haven’t had too much to talk about.

I feel like I’m somewhat stalled since the new year and GTTSC. Four months into the year and I feel like I haven’t made much progress in my games at all.

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I do get addicted to FIFA each year. Not the popular ultimate team, although I have in the past and should play more now. It’s the career mode that I love the most. Turning an average championship team into eventual premier league and champions league winners. Through bargains and youth talent that grows into the best players of the next generation.

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Also got really into gems of war over the past months. On our discord - https://discord.gg/TN9A9DTKDY We have built a really good clan that contributes and works towards the weekly bonuses etc and eventually the 16 million clan trophy. We could could do with some new members for our server, since it gets quiet at times. Lots of nice people on it ;)

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Apart from those two time sinks. I’ve been enjoying Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve done all the main story bar the last mission. I still lots and lots of side stuff left though. The latest update however has made the perform worse and feel choppy. For me it was better before update 1.2. Hopefully they can improve on it.

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After almost a quarter of the year gone. I don’t have much to show for it progress and gaming wise it seems. Some co-op plans fell by the way side. However have it takes two and Diablo 3 lined up for coop fun over the coming weeks and I’m really looking forward to both of these. Heard so many good things about it takes two recently and D3 is a classic.

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after 10 hours I put Ghost of Tsushima to the side for the completion in winter and I’m yet to return to it. Although I want to. Especially now it has a PS5 upgrade for graphics and frame rate.

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I recently bought Disco Elysium for £26 new. I was gonna wait on it but at that price I had to get it. Another one I’ve heard glowing reviews for on podcasts and online. I’ve put about 3 hours into it. It’s a detective dialogue RPG with chance rolls. Now fully voiced. It has a great and unique painted like art style. Some great humor already in places and is very interesting. It’s hard to describe but it’s very different to most RPG games. I recommend reading a review.

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When I get a chance I want to start Persona 5 royal and get strikers. Get back into Ghost of Tsushima. Games I put off that I bought recently too like. Miles morales, bug snacks, AC Valhalla, Immortals fynx rising, restart demon souls. Maybe start dragon quest XI and Yakuza series. Been fancying Yakuza like a dragon but since it’s the seventh game will take ages to get to. Not to mention I haven’t started games I got for Christmas 2019 like borderlands 3 and MHW Iceborne. Also I wanna play through FFVII intergrade with dlc. With everything mentioned and current games. It feels like I won’t even get through that with the rest of the year at my current pace.

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I got into PS3 and vita late since I skipped those generations on PlayStation. With PS3 I have only played half of Ni No Kuni and I bought about ten, 100 hour JRPGs on it. Now I feel like I need to rush them out maybe. It won’t be possible though with what I have already on my overwhelming plate. Plus I need to check what I wanna buy before the stores close soon. On vita I have started persona 4 golden for my work breaks and so far it seems like a truly amazing RPG worthy of its praise online.

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New PS5 games I’m looking forward to like Returnal and Ratchet & Clank may have to get put off a bit and then bought in a sale maybe. Not sure yet. My backlog is exciting but also overwhelming and it keeps growing faster than I can get through them. Also after work I seem more tired than ever. Sometimes too tired to game or only get an hour or two in. My 2 days off seem to fly by without much progress done too. I seem to get a few hours gaming done on those. Procrastinate way too much and distract myself or end up binging Netflix etc.

Even though I feel like my gaming engine has stalled a bit. I plan on playing some quality games and enjoying the time I can get with them. Lost interest a bit in competitions atm too. Maybe because I feel like I have less time or maybe because I have gone off easy points a lot recently although I need to go back to some for my completion percentage at some point.

So overall it’s a good and luxurious problem to have, but also feels impossible to manage atm. The ever growing backlog is a monster I can’t contain anytime soon.

Some have said we are in a dry patch for games. With a new 10/10 RPG out (granted a PC port that’s been improved with the final cut) and a new 9/10 (some would say 10/10) co-op game. It’s been a very good few weeks. Plus add to that my often mentioned back log and it’s looking like a good start to spring for gaming.

Even this blog stalled. I wrote the above 3 weeks ago and just watched tv in my spare time. Just bought Returnal today. I don’t wanna encourage the £70 price point but I really liked the sound of this game. Spent 2/3 hours on it before completing this. The game is super fun. The haptics are great and the 3D sound is very immersive. I will save any more chat about this game though for the next blog :p

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Posted by Cloud-side on 04 May 21 at 22:27 | There are 6 comments on this blog post - Please log in to comment on this blog.
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