Messages

1

General / Re: July 2025 - Recently added to collection/recently purchased

« on: July 08, 2025, 04:50:25 am »

Although I am attempting to slow down drastically on purchasing. Some amazon returns allowed for some foreign purchases.I have pre ordered some upcoming releases. One of which is set to come today. Which is Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 collectors edition. Which comes with a birdhouse skate deck with a lithograph of Tony's autograph! Pretty pumped.

Also

PS5

Deliver at all costs [UK Only]
Tear Down [JP]
And
Planet Zoo

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 07, 2025, 05:30:54 am »

Platinum'd Jusant. One of the more enjoyable Platinums.  Boy this years "year in review" thread is gonna be very difficult for me. I feel like I've played at least 7 games that will stick with me for life.  Congrats everyone on progress at a little past the half year mark!   

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 06, 2025, 05:06:31 am »

45. Jusant [PS5] - finished July 6th, 2025




Jusant is one of those cute little indie "engines that could" games of the PS Plus games monthly world. But rarely do they throw a home cooked meal feel type of masterpiece like this. That I am honored to have grace my screen.  What a warm experience.  Take on traversals as you climb beautiful sun soaked mountain scapes, abandoned ruins and wild plants through gloriously beautiful open air.  The world becomes your playground with each trigger tap and it's quite BEASTLY.

You are accompanied by a companion called a ballast.  The sole way to describe them based on the letters you collect throughout the game are fabled demi gods that use sound waves to make mythical use of environments.  Plants respond to the cries of the blue ball of cuteness on your back allowing vines to pertrude and then you climb.   The backstory of the ballasts unravels itself as you read diary journals left behind and letters from a woman named Bianca. Who I suppose climbed the path you are before you did.  They act as a sort of guidance into the unknown. 


The climbing elements are similar to say Uncharted but far more quick, light and varied.  The game relies on environmental changes to vary the climbing.  Wind will blow a windmill that you are climbing changing its position.  Some plants wither in the sunlight meaning you must rush those sections. It's so fluid, it's non newtonian, the gentle breezes vibrate the dualsense.  It becomes intertwined in your fingers as you feel you and the main protagonist become one.  It's a zenful experience and doesn't do anything to sway your focus from its beauty. Its clean cut perfection in terms of 3d platforming.

Throughout the world are collectibles.  Cairns which essentially are rocks that someone decided should be stacked.  Letters from bianca.  Frescos. Which are pretty glow paintings.  And the spinny rock pillar things.  Shells to listen to echos from nature itself.  It all is so peaceful.  The earl grey tea of video games. A warm mid evening sip of a hot cocoa that leaves you wondering if a hot cocoa becomes cool is it a cool cocoa or does it remain hot in name despite coolness in it's tempatural existence.  Every plant, every rock. It all just feels booming with calm.  Which is neat considering the game is packed with action.  It's meditative beauty.



One of 12 Frescos in the game. Colorful murals for the player to find

The games soundtrack is very amazon nusic calming sounds sorta vibe mixed with games like Ori and the blind Forrest. And considering its free to play right now if you have the subscription for ps plus extra (I believe its for extra subscribers but it may be for standard ps plus members too) it's just impossible to not chase a platinum trophy on this one.  It's concise but not too much. It does just about everything right.  Tbh. One of my favorite games of all time.  Which is shocking but its just simple, quick, clean and perfect. Which is my favorite experiences now a days.

Rating - 100/100

4

Off Topic / Re: How do you deal with getting older?

« on: July 05, 2025, 05:50:36 pm »

Idk if anyone else feels this but does it seem like time moves faster as you age?  Seemed like days were 2 days when I was younger.  Now it seems like no matter how much time I make. Plans I cancel. It's just wake up. And then its bedtime right after.  Theirs this sense of too quick. Idk.   Where it comes from.

It feels faster because the individual time amounts take up less and less of your overall life. Take summer vacation for example. To a 7 year old, that summer vacation is about 4% of their total life and all the memories contained. To a 37 year old, that same time period is now only 0.6% of their life.

Also, it doesn't help how much adulting can take out of your free time. Lawn needs to be mowed, laundry needs to be done, groceries need to be bought, etc., etc. So that 2 days off a week can wind up feeling like only a few hours free depending on how things stack up.

This makes a lot of sense. That 2nd part hits home. I was just saying I feel like I spend more time at Walmart than my home lol. It seems like every 2 days the groceries are gone. And if I buy in bulk then I need something else or it spoils. Then it's laundry.  Then it's car care. Then it's doctors, dentist or other health appointments.  By the time I actually sit down with a video game at the end of the night my eyes are heavy and i'm falling asleep.  Maybe get 2 hours tops.   

Perhaps that's the issue im having. The boring parts of life are taking up maybe a good chunk so it feels like the memorable parts are actually small and rushed.  I gotta try to time budget better.


But that other age correlation phenomenon is fascinating. It just feels wild lately. I feel like new years was about a week ago. Its that bad. Sorta out of body.   I'm gonna try to focus more on the scope of time and less about the movement of it.  Just another thing to add about how getting older sucks lol.   

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News / Re: Official Fallback Forum

« on: July 02, 2025, 10:09:26 pm »

Joined!  I really like this idea.  I've grown to love the community here. At least theirs a chance to congregate if it all goes belly up again.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: July 02, 2025, 07:53:09 pm »

Playstation's monthly game Jusant has proven to be massuvely epic so far.  Free to play if you are a psn member. 

The game is essentially climbing a beautiful mountain scape to uncover a mystery. Gorgeous art

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Classic Video Games / Re: New Haul Picked Up Today At TooManyGames

« on: July 02, 2025, 06:12:02 am »

Are those good prices? I stopped buying games and haven't kept up with the market. They seem ok for a couple.

About 10 to 20 percent over retail on each. Deduct 5 bucks from each and you get fair pricing. That adds up. But like NickAwesome said. Perhaps their was negotiating involved.  Really cool games though.


I loved that rampage as a kid!

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Off Topic / Re: How do you deal with getting older?

« on: July 01, 2025, 06:08:52 pm »

I recently had a birthday which puts me in my late 30s. I understand I'm still not old, and by conventional standards I'm not even middle aged yet, but one thing that has been on my mind a lot over the last year or so is how people deal with getting older.


it's a strange thing coming out of your late teens, 20s, and even your early 30s and most things are more or less as you remembered them, but then you realize one day they're not. Your relatives you've had in your minds eye as being around a certain age most of your life are now several decades beyond that, you start to hear more and more about people you knew personally dying, and even you aren't the same person anymore. You don't have the energy you once did, your body has all sorts of random aches and pains you never used to have, and you could have sworn you were just renewing your plates or paying your taxes a few months ago, when it's actually been a whole year already. I guess the passage of time and the reality of how much time has passed is starting to finally catch up with me. Does anyone else have feelings like this or have you dealt with this and somehow come to terms with it?

I think about it every single day when i'm alone. Damn... this hit the feels for me.  I actually been feeling sort of out of body lately. Almost existential crisis.  Like sometimes I just sit there and realize how finite life is...  it feels like yesterday was y2k.  Like monday was ps2 release date. it feels like Majoras mask. Where it's a game, all n64 and life as usual but then you look up and death is just there.  When you start the game. That moon is far away. Easy peezy.  No urgency or fear. You're a kid! But once you near 30, 40, 50 and I imagine especially 60 and 70.  That moon is not exactly where it started anymore.  And the reality of that is jarring.  And it jars you the more you look up.

And things have radically changed with the advent of internet dependency. Which has not helped matters. It makes us lead very centralized and introverted psuedo lifestyles of speed. I find myself saying "these kids today" like an old grandfather and i'm not even 30 yet lol.  It just has changed.  Complex stuff like learning how to work a check book.  Even something as simple as looking out the window every 30 seconds for a pizza guy.  The excitement.  Now we have an app to track it. Why wait at a mom and pop store. Amazon will do it quicker. Better. Theirs no effort required so I think life speeds up when theirs less to do. Less to see. It all feels like around 2010 or 2012. We all died at the same time. And everything after 2013 is just a bizarre dream. And this is a new life. Thats how different it is.  But I know thats not the case.


Idk if anyone else feels this but does it seem like time moves faster as you age?  Seemed like days were 2 days when I was younger.  Now it seems like no matter how much time I make. Plans I cancel. It's just wake up. And then its bedtime right after.  Theirs this sense of too quick. Idk.   Where it comes from.

I guess we just gotta focus more on what is changeable.  The quality of the life not the quantity.   I know death can only bring us the answers of whats next. But its human nature to ponder it.   

Sometimes the quote "dont be sad its over. Be happy it happened" make me feel better. 

9

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 01, 2025, 05:06:31 pm »

44. NFL Street [PS2] - finished July 1st 2025



My Childhood

NFL Street was a core building block of my childhood. Back in the days when AOL discs littered the carpets of the 1 bedroom apartments of gamers. The days of yellow pages ordering that meat lover pizza from the local joint Timmy's pizza. The soft buzz of a CRT.  Back when tvs were smaller yet weighed 200x more.  But what was big was what was inside the tv... EA Big.  A company that was a subsidiary of EA as an umbrella of sports dominance. Known for making the SSX games, and many other street games for each sport.  But NFL Street was the most critically beloved of them all.  This was very much a walk down the cobblestoned pavements of memory lane.


The games intro brings nostalgia right away.  But while I beat NFL Street 2 maybe 20 times as a kid.  I never beat NFL Street 1.  And now I know why.  The game is fun, a catalyst for the greatest arcade football franchise of all time but it's also so damn poorly paced.  And is riddled with flaws.  Which sadly knock it off its pedestal at the end. But otherwise its an epic epic game.

No pads, no rules, just backyard beef, as we stiff armed my homework into eternal grief.  My PS2 hummed like a streetlight fight, while Ray Lewis trucked kids into parental oversight.  From adolescence to adult essence.  We digress into what made it special and not so.

It was bling era. MTV. Mike Jones.  The game is a window into that simpler time. 

Premise

So you basically form a team of new comers. The intent is to build a squad good enough to challenge not only every NFL team (you'll see how redundant that is) but also every afc and nfc championship team (theirs and if you do.  You get privilege to face the NFL Legends. Who essentially are jacked up HOF athletes with higher stats than anyone else.

Where the game is bliss is its rpg element system and the challenges.   Challenges will be presented. For example "stiff arm 2 times and score on your first play" and if you do that. It awards you development points.  Which can be used to upgrade players.  This cycle always changes because the challenges vary so wildly.  Not as wildly as nfl street 2 which perfects this formula.  (Please always note that nfl street 2 is another league of game far greater than this one) but these rpg upgrade elements really allow for a fun time.  If the game were just these. Itd be flawless.  You get to watch your team develop from project kids to essentially better than nfl stars.  You can physically feel and see the impact your upgrades have on field.  If you max a speed stat. He will be lightning while your other guys are molases on grass.  This formula makes the game a wild arcadey blast of building up your squad.


Gameplay is smooth.  I actually prefer its simplicity over 2. 2 added gamebreaker 2. Which is unnecessary and redundant.  Otherwise NFL Street 2 added so much depth and trimmed the fat off nfl street 1.  But the game is good mechanics wise.  Just a bit hard.  But now heres the flaws of the game.


REPETITION

Howlongtobeat.com has this game pegged to 10 hours.  It seems users go on there to simply lie about how fast they can beat a game.  Semi annoying.  Here is the truth.   In order to face the legends. You have to beat 8 all star teams from each conference.  If that was it? Climb the ladder and beat the greats? perfection.  Itd still be a long grind.  But no..  you must beat all 32 nfl teams to even face the 8 conference all stars.  Thats 40 games.  The games are to 36 points. So thats not a short game.  It's roughly 5 to 6 touchdowns.  For lack of a better word.  This is just damn redundant.  You didn't need to beat 4 teams in a row to get the allstar battle.  The allstar battle is all the best players anyway. That proves you are ready for the legends.  The rest is pure bloat.   Even if you do these games in 15 minutes each (doesnt always happen) the game is at least 20 hours of bloat.  It gave me carpal tunnel lol.  And that is NOT including the hustle of the challenges.  Some of those are massively drawn out. Most include beating those very same teams in games to 36, 40 and even 100.   So what you get is a game that had potential to be borderline flawless. But made you go through a marathon where a sprint was more appropriate. It becomes so repetitive facing the same teams on the same fields with no mix up.  The challenges alone are 10 hours minimum of gaming if you seek to actually max your teams stats.  NFL Street 2 eliminates the team nonsense and keeps it just as I said. Challenges only. It's flawless. To beat the entire league 3 times over? Yeah im sapped out.

Overall the fun building style of nfl street 1 is a beauty. And without it crawling with that formula. Nfl street 2 wouldn't have been able to run with it. It's a colorful window in 2000w hip hop culture. But it needed brevity.

Overall - 85/100

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 26, 2025, 06:55:28 am »

70. We <3 Katamari (PS2)

Back around the time We <3 Katamari first came out, I was working a crappy retail job. Two of my coworkers and I had bonded over our love of video games and anime, which led to one of them inviting us over to his apartment after work one night to play some weird game he had just bought. What ensued is the three of us playing We <3 Katamari until the sun came up the next day while listening to J-Pop and Dir En Grey. It was an excellent experience and beyond just the fond memories of that night, it also made me a fan of the Katamari series with We <3 Katamari being the came that started it all.

This was really a cool read! Reminded me of a simpler time back when late night, a PS2 and some Dominoes Pizza, the dim lit glow of the screen is all you needed. Carrying a gamecube next door after work. Gaming felt so social back then.

-----‐---------------------------------------------------------

43. Lego Rock Band [PS3] - finished June 24th, 2025


I think Chinese water torture and dog dander scented nasal drops are better than this game.  It is probably the worst rythym game ive played. And I didnt expect that.  But thats just the blunt reality of it.  So let's begin there lol.


Lego rockband is yet another rythym guitar/ instrument made by hermonix. Now with lego branding and you level up and basically play multiple different brick venues.  But where lego rockband shines in cute lego fun.  It dies in its complete disregard for the human soul, its incessant reliance on repetition, it's overwhelming need for bloat like a beached sun rotted Salmon and lastly. It's cliche plotless joke of a linear path that makes you feel like you're sitting through a spoken word circle at the local rec center.  It gets old so fast.


Lego Rockband.... ya know. What can be said truly other than it was like sitting at the dmv attempting to finish this game and I couldnt quite put my finger on to why. I'll explain why later. I almost felt the game itself ruined Rythym based games for me... I had lost it. The love for it all.  until I began Guitar Hero III right smack dab after. Guitar Hero III was the catalyst to show me what went wrong.  The legendary epicness of that game where not a single song feels out of place. Not a single fret wasted.  Shows in mirror contrast how bad Lego Rockband is.  I now realize I stuck out the bloated soundtrack not because I was bad.  The game had me tangled in stockholm syndrome missing what could be.  A life I never seen. 

Lego Rockband divides your playtime which is already incredibly bloated into forcing you to play the same songs 27 times to progress.  Some venues require 40 stars to proceed. Which means you gotta sit there and play the games setlist over and over.  The same "choose 2 songs" that become stale because the game unlike guitar hero 3 doesnt roll out a buffet for you. It basically leaves two bins of cold leftovers and recycles that for 2 weeks.  I played the song "boys and girls" by good charlotte solely because otherwise id be delegated to playing synthy pop music on guitar, dad rock songs that have aged like crud.  And even the songs that are fun. Like Sum 41's in too deep. Are mapped like shit.   The notes feel mundane.  The solos?? It will pop up on screen "solo time" and it will require you the player to nail these action sequences. Except you can tell they spent no actual effort to make the solo harder, faster, funner or more epic. It feels like a bridge. The notes are bland and lifeless. On hard difficulty it feels medium. 

Then the game gets the idea to make a set list that is required to beat to progress.  Guess what that entails? You must beat 5 songs in a row. All about 5 minutes each. Without stopping. By force. So I gotta sit here. For 30 straight minutes and play the lifeless dad rock. It doesnt even have the class to let you get bored in 4 minute increments at a time lol.   Guitar Hero yet again at its peak would never insist on a 5 song binge because 1. Its a terrible idea that adds nothing to the game.  And 2. Perhaps more obvious is that you cant stop. Some people dont play long game sessions.  Fingers cramp.  Ect.   I just dont get it.  I really dont. 

Then you got the longevity.  Theirs a certain tact in brevity.  A bit of love in simplicity.  The greats like Beatles Rockband knew how to do this.  Imagine if beatles rockband like a clingy tinder date demanded "nope. Beat helter skeltet 7 more times.  Because we didnt count the 1st one.  Oh and do all these yoko ono B sides.  These bizarre John Lennon unreleased solo tracks. And perform the entire Ed Sullivan show without taking a break.  It'd ruin it all. 


Even the lego concept isnt done great.  All that is lego about the game is you play as a lego toy character.  Id argue thats lamer.  Games like Forza Horizon 4 prove how massively special a lego experience can be.  Why not breaking fret boards? Blocks smashing? Notes that are lego bricks and as you play you build designs?   Something more than a skin?  It feels just cheaply pasted.

Also here is the sheer bloat im talking about. The game has 260 gigs covering over 1200 possible stars to collect and 10 vehicles to buy.  While the game has numerous venues, each one is essentially the same in terms of gameplay, with variations mainly in the visual decor. So you end up repeating set lists. Because the game only has 45 songs.  And of them songs. Maybe 30 dont fit the style of play to be considered good. So whatdaya got? Lol. 


All and all. Lego Rockband suffers from a lot.  Nothing is blaringly bad at face but it has maybe 10 bad things that make it overwhelmingly mundane as a cohesive unit.


Rating - 32/100

11

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 21, 2025, 05:43:42 am »

42. River City Girls: Zero [PS5] - finished Jun 21st, 2025



This game unlike the 2 other river city girl way forward games that in essence revitalize the franchise with new entires is basically a port of the SNES game only released in super famicom markets I believe. Which is obscure and maybe lesser known than the NES game River City Ransom. It's a port in full 16 bit with only quality of life improvements sprinkled in. And they added cut scenes. A radical theme song and made it visually nice.  As a catalyst before I dive into my copy of river city girls. I wanted to experience this. As the precursor of what would come. 

Shocking Depth

The game has you take on the role of mostly Riki and Kunio. Two charismatic teens that are wrongfully imprisoned due to a case of mistaken identity. But you also get to play as the peppy, jealousy drenched colorful girlfriends of said characters. All 4 of which have funny banter amongst themselves and villains.  90s dialogue slaps sometimes. Think letterman jackets, cliche hair slicked tropes and brawling gang members across amusement parks and schools. Pretty cool.  It's a portal to a simple corny badassery that encompassed 90s humor.  Phrases like "be there or be square" and "whos this chick?" Just feel nostalgic.

The girls move sets differ in cliche manner.  And id actually say the 2 leads are not the girls despite the title. Riki and espeically Kudio are much more pivotal to the plot.  The plot of the game without spoiling anything is surprisingly deep and engrossing for a super nintendo beat em up.  Filled with turmoil, trauma, plot twists and more. It actually wasnt just a "mash X" type of beat em up.  It required delicate planning and lots of patience to learn enemy attack patterns.  This felt like a coin swallowing arcade cabinet in a Tokyo laundrymat, it kept all its design the same.  This is mostly good. But being a niche port of a 30 year old beat em up.  It carries issues with it like the soggy rotted grapes that come bundled with the freshly riped vine. They didnt clean it up. So you get what the past intended.  Thats good. Because overall I love the bosses. Its got a sweet short length and wildly hard difficulty spikes. Its not for the faint of heart. And their are flaws that piggy backed along.



Flaws

The hit boxes are fairly small. Like most snes games. You can visually see your leg make contact and not count a strike. That gets annoying on bass battles. The margin for error is so small. And sometimes it does rob you a clean hit.  It also makes it so that some enemies require such a beating to die that it almost seems unfair.  Its hard.  And it also makes you move on a 3d plane of sorta lanes? But its also 2d? Its strange feeling to line up attacks. But that comes with its age.

pros

Big Bertha.  I believe her name is Misuzu.  Is absolutely ballistically Hard. But in a fun "I wanna learn the method to the madness" sorta way modern games dont encapsulate as much anymore.  Beating bosses in this feel triumphant and I love that rewarding feel. 

Awesome Biker sequences. Are exactly like road rash for ps1.  They are sorta intermission stages between levels. And I found the art style and variety those give to be genius.

The visuals have aged excellent.


Overall the controls and special attacks feel nicely done.  It's a cool way to play a SFC classic. It's a box car, a bottle of saki, and a prickly pear if you stare too long.  But I say its worth the 5 dollars I paid. 


Rating - 87/100

Difficulty - 8.5/10

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 20, 2025, 03:03:37 pm »

Finished Shantae and the Seven Sirens this morning, and I think it's pretty handily my favorite game in that franchise so far.  It's feels the like the most traditional Metroidvania, and the map is fun to explore, and the abilities are cute and fun.  It is a bit too easy, and kinda rushes to the end.

I gotta get to playing my Shantae collection! I recently got all 5 of the limited run games signed by Matt and Eron Bozon of way forward games.  Do you know if they tie in together at all? Based on the others you played. I imagine it's only vaguely connected and can be experienced out of sequence hopefully.  Shantae 1 is hard and id like to start with an easier newer experience. I love the art style.

______________________________________________

Abandoned - Heavenly Bodies [PS5]


Heavenly bodies is a physics based newtonian type of game where realism is its detriment to me.  Played it for all of 10 minutes and uninstalled it. Imagine tediously moving an astronauts individual limbs to push him through unpredictable zero G in narrow hall ways where one wrong move will make you fall all the way down and start over.  It's the game "only up" mixed with cold spaghetti and bland graphics. I seriously hated this game. It is praised. But for whatever reason it doesnt click for me.

13

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 19, 2025, 02:31:10 am »

41. The Precinct [PS5] - finished Jun 19th, 2025



Take on the role of Officer Nick Cordell, a green, wet behind the ears new kidd on the beat of Averno's finest that the PD has to offer. Attempting to solve the mystery of what happened to his father who is also a cop in a prestigious lineage of cop pride.  The game... is fantastic!

2025 has had quite the indie explosion for me.  Call me indie...ana.. Jones.  Ok... I digress. (Apples thrown from onlookers at the comedy club) 

Precinct plays like a top down PS1 era revolution of the format that made GTA 1 and 2 so deliciously consumerable but it ups it to 10,000.  This game is more of a police simulator than police simulator which is a game I played. But goodness was that game so mundane.  It's a fine balance between real life bore and real life dramatzied to form a video game. This game helps you feel the life of a officer. From the parking meters to the big city hiests. But does it without making you want to sign up for an early 401k lol. I felt like a cop and felt a obligation to clean up the streets of this fictional city.


Its got comedy, grace, plot, and stunning visuals for the most part.  Its absolutely addictive to pat people down. Find controband, frisk, search trunks, and ultimately scroll through a wheel that allows you to pin a litany of charges on these would be crooks.

Your partner Leo Kelly. Sergant accompnies you on the many beats which can range from helicopter patrol. Drug busts. Speeding violations.  All with the intent to uncover vital evidence. Vital evidence then translates into information. You can then tackle underbosses and bosses. Ect... the game is a blast. 


Averno City is drenched in night light soaked, siren serenaded metropolis feels. 1970s police force. Chevrolet Caprice cruisers. Classic lingo. Wild colors. And a vibrant emciornemmt make it all memorable.  As a player. I never forget writing my first parking ticket. It all feels full circle.


From the cracks in the cobblestone Nick Cordell rose. A lion among sheep. Try all they want but they will never become free. And only will their ever be one... he.  Seperating the word grit from inteGRITy one hancuffed dime store crook at a time.  Welcome to the patrol kid.


I overall loved precinct.  A indie game that came out of nowhere and sidelined me into fun. 

The only gripe I have is sometimes the perps drop wildly incriminating evidence. Like a SKS assault rifle. And have gang affiliates. Yet it doesn't count as "vital evidence". 

But it keeps stride. And has a neat noir style comic sketch sorta art style. Theirs a lot to love here.

Rating - 93/100

14

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 11, 2025, 04:44:36 am »

40. The Quarry [PS5] - Finished Jun 11th, 2025



STORY TELLING NIRVANA


The Quarry much like Until Dawn shares its mechanics, lineage and soul with its cousin.  Both games were made by supermassive games although Until Dawn was under a wider sony studios and super massive sorta did Quarry more independently free from that umbrella.  And tbh. In my opinion.  The Quarry is 10x better.  Which trust me. Until Dawn was fantastic. This game just got snug like a bug under the rug. The characters are rawly believable.


The Quarry is bleeding with 1980s horror tropes. Cabin by the lake (friday the 13th) camp councilor, crazy woman looking for her kid by the reiver (la llorona) it's basically old ghost stories meets a sorta wendigo werewolf monster hybrid meets sicko family cult. Meets EVERYTHING.  This thing is a big juicy spook burger and we all can take a bite. But the fun thing is! It doesn't get overwhelming. 

Instead of collecting totems. This time you collect tarot cards. Such a much more introspective thing. As tarot can provide insight in similar ways but also plays into the spooky circus level cookyness of the game. It is fun to find knowing the reveals they lead to.  But you can also refuse the views into the future if you so choose.

Where Until Dawn had a wider plot of the sisters this game covers the hackett families mysteries. Which I wont share for spoiler sake. But the plot is deep as 7 layer bean dip. Its a glorious presentation.

ACTING CAST



These voice actors and body motion performers are excellent.  I mean who doesnt love Brenda Song? David Arquette?  It covers every trope.  Angsty. Confident. Frat extroverts. Emotional turmoil. Jealousy.  Its basically every emotion a clan of teens can express exploding outwards onto the viewer. The game really rocks in how it presents characters.

When you place a player into a pov format where you choose dialogue branches. I feel it makes every life or death moment feel more impactful. Like the trolley problem brought to life. Do you risk the A to save the B.

I began to engage deeply like a movie franchise with characters. In particular Laura who is a absolute Claire from.resident evil 2 level BAD-ASS. 


Like until dawn theirs dozens of ways the game can end. Which is neat.  The decisions you make effect the story unlike with some telltale games where its linear at the end. 

The graphics are phenomenal. The layout is neat. The setting is fun to me.  And the podcasts you can play in the menu is a cute touch. 

It touches on the occult. Its a horror fans dream. I personally think it lured me and kept me gripped in its talons all the way through. Barely put it down in 2 days  

The QTE events are easier but more enjoyable than others imo.  And this is by no means insulting until dawn. Just comparing two games in similar bloodline.  Supermassive had no issue with this juggernaut.  I hope we can see more epicness like this! 


The dread, fear. It's palpable.  And this game cinematically is my 3rd 100 of the year. What a great great game! One that sticks with you.

Rating - 100/100

15

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 11, 2025, 04:29:13 am »

39. My Name is Mayo [PS4] - finished Jun 10th, 2025




Thats collectively a half hour of my life that I will probably forever be able to locate in my brain as wasted lol... it was self inflicted however somewhere, somehow. Right before I ascend through the clouds living both a moment in a lifetime but a lifetime in a moment. The golden film reel playing in my head. I'll probably have long forgotten this game. But if I didn't. Id just deem wow... If only I had the 37 minutes I collectively wasted of this precious sentient upright walking mammal existence back.  Id give up I am Mayo to hug my family again.  And that???   Is a shame...  never had a game make me this introspective about what really matters. Its so bad it makes you look within yourself as to why you subjected yourself to it.  Part of me wants to make this satirical praise of it. I cant. It's just really a bore. 


I understood going in that it was less than shovelware. But I somehow expected it to have more satire involved. Comedy. Making fun of itself.  Nope....  I expected silly gameplay.  Something tangible.

You tap a jar of mayonaise 10,000 times.  Thats the game.  You tap it. 

If you're wondering roughly how long it takes to hit X on a ps5 controller 10,000 times.  Roughly 5 times per second average. With maybe 1 break in the middle

About a half hour.... 

A test of patience. A condiment of favor.  Truly a why moment of my completions this year. Luckily it was followed by something polar opposite, story rich and epic.


However it is mayonnaise.  And it delivers on its promise of being mayonnaise. Which is somehow still better than Concord lol.


Rating - 27/100