Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, The Walking Dead, Hotline Miami, Analogue: A Hate Story, Assassin's Creed 3, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 3 Portable
It was a long fun weekend! I will talk about it at GREAT LENGTH! I wasn't even trying to make a pun! Because that's not that funny!
Anyway, let's start with some handheld nonsense, which I played throughout. You've heard about these before, Harvest Moon, still working on that. Almost through the summer. I've managed to please the insane mayor who thinks I need to spend over $16,000 of my own money just to install street lamps around the city. Come on man, you know there is only one place I can get iron. Is this a racket? Are you shaking me down, man? Anyway, he gave me another list of demands, this guy, but it's the only way to unlock more houses, so there we go. Also some barber guy moved in. Sure whatever.
A little bit of Persona 3, heading for that perfect run, killed the first full moon shadow. I can't believe how easy this game is, especially considering:
Persona 4 Golden! Okay, so, it's still Persona 4, like, the first...um...eight hours is pretty much identical, with the addition of Marie, the new character that they keep talking about (she lives in the Velvet Room and is mean), and a huge incredible improvement to the actual gameplay. Big plus number one: less random nonsense. You now get to pick what card you want during shuffle time, and you get to choose what skills get inherited when you fuse personas. This is huge. It is so easy to get a nice little running crew, which is needed, because combat is pretty tough. They adjusted cost of elemental spells (you know, the spells that you are always using) so it's more expensive, and the first level benefit for your party member's social link is no longer the nice but broken "they will die for you." This is all little stuff, and I don't know why I am telling you. There are other little things; books are different; you can now go out and wander the streets at night, like a hooligan. (I like that you can only sneak out if Dojima's not home, otherwise he will yell at you.) Apparently the general store lady turns it into a pub at night? Wacky. ANYWAY, I like this package a lot. They did a lot to really pump up the game, even the textures look better. This was almost worth it.
I also played some Assassin's Creed 3 multiplayer, because I can. Good enough?
The rest of time, I was on Steam, getting caught up in the sale. I hear Hotline Miami is pretty good, and I played the first couple of levels of that, but I got stuck at the third level where there's this huge open lobby and some dudes with guns right off. How am I going to do this, guys? But yeah, good style, pretty fucked up, nice.
I also have had visual novels on the mind, so I played one that I bought a while ago and have been afraid to play. Analogue: A Hate Story. In the story, you play a space explorer investigating a derelict colony ship. Judging by the logs provided by the AI you run into, apparently society reset to that of Joseon-era Korea (maybe?) in which women were treated just absolutely awfully, and a girl with a terminal illness who was in cryostasis (who remembered when society didn't suck) gets woken up and forced to marry the emperor. It's interesting, written well, good interface. There was this weird gamey part that distracted me though, so I didn't get very far.
And the rest was The Walking Dead. I played through the whole thing, and man. If were not aware, The Walking Dead is an extremely depressing adventure game, in which you play Lee Everett, convicted murderer, who was on his way to jail when the zombie apocalypse happened. He finds a young girl named Clementine and commits to assisting her, and then a bunch of really fucking messed-up stuff happens. It just reminds me how much I am glad that zombies aren't a thing, because I would have no idea what I would do. But good character writing, good arcing, really interesting fast decision-making moments, you should all go play it if you haven't. Just...be prepared for a bunch of tough decisions.
