Transistor

Transistor was something that was living on my Amazon wishlist for a while, so I was happy to be able to download it for free as part of my PS Plus membership earlier this year. I FINALLY got some time last week to dive in and…

WHAT A GREAT GAME.

Seriously enjoyed the first playthrough and am now on my second because of the replay value (you keep all your stats and unlockables). The battle system was complex enough to be interesting but not overwhelming–had me thinking of Final Fantasy in a good way.

As far as the story goes, what a trip! I was convinced for most of the play that I was in some kind of virtual reality that had been infected with a virus, but after getting to the end and reading online, it’s more like their world was partly digital. Such a beautiful, visually stunning, heartbreaking game. And the ending was so haunting.

Can’t recommend it enough.

No Man’s Sky on Colbert

In case you missed it, Sean Murray was on Colbert earlier this month to talk about “No Man’s Sky.” Still no news on a release date, but notice how he worked in the comment “most games have hundreds of developers and we only have 10”. Okay, Sean, we get it. No release date yet.

The nervous laughter whenever someone asks for it is not very encouraging, though.

Vote for Xbox One Backwards Compatibility

So… still watching out for news on the backwards compatibility front on the Xbox website. Haven’t seen anything drop that I’m too excited about yet, except for Fallout 3 which is mentioned as “Planned” in this Gamespot article. Apparently more than 100 games will drop in November for everyone (not just people in the Xbox Preview program).

Come on Microsoft… I’ll spring for an Xbox One if you get this right. Well, I’ll make my husband spring for it as a Christmas gift this year, lol. … I might even get an Xbox Gold membership (no… no I probably won’t).

In any case, you can vote for the games you want to see made backwards compatible in the feedback forums. Go forth and vote!

Xbox One Backwards Compatible?!?!

So… I’ve been really out of the loop the last few months. Buying a house, helping my sister with her wedding, and working 50 hour weeks has made it hard to find time for gaming. The last few weeks I’ve been staying up late (probably way too late) to replay Fallout 3 and get psyched for Fallout 4.

Now, I don’t have an Xbox One and have been kind of worried–in a vague way–about how Fallout 4 was going to play on the PS4. Been thinking about springing for an Xbox One for the sake of Elder Scrolls, Fallout, etc., because I have a weird platform loyalty for certain titles, but couldn’t justify it. I mean, I have a Wii, a PS3, a PS4, and an Xbox 360 all crammed into my entertainment center, and my PS2 waiting in the wings for when I’m feeling really nostalgic.

But then… the news hit me. Here I am reading about Fallout 4, and there’s this last, throwaway sentence with a link to another, older story. “Later this year, Fallout 3 will be playable on the Xbox One via the console’s upcoming backwards compatibility functionality.” My jaw dropped. Xbox One is going to be backwards compatible?!!?!??! OMFG that is so amazing I can’t even… breathe… breathe… YES!!!!

This is probably old news to everyone else, but I am currently in shock and thinking about finally trading up. Holy crap.

Dishonored Replay

I was getting annoyed with waiting for the Dragon Age DLC on PS4 (May?!) so I spooled up my old PS3 and popped in Dishonored. I hadn’t played the game for over two years, but for some reason it was calling out to me from the shelf. 

My job has been really hectic lately, so I haven’t had as much time to play games as I would like. Still, I wanted a challenge. So I played through for the “Clean Hands”, “Ghost”, and “Shadow” achievements, and as of this evening: Mission Accomplished!!

Of course, now that I’ve played through without killing or even being seen by anyone, I have a strong desire to go through another playthrough where I do the Exact. Opposite. Yeah, I think that’s what’s next. Just realized I never went for the High Chaos ending (I’m such a softie).

Dragon Age: Inquisition Patch 5

Just updated Dragon Age: Inquisition with Patch 5. Too bad my first playthrough is past the epilogue and my second is still in Haven. No Undercroft for me yet 😦 Though I am having a lot of fun replaying the beginning and getting to see a whole other side to the Templar/Mage mission.

Actually, I’m really surprised this update came through so quickly after Patch 4. I thought we’d have a much longer wait. Check out the full Patch 5 Notes from Bioware.

No Man’s Sky Doesn’t Have an Official Release Date Yet

So… anyone else getting sick of all the release date click bait for No Man’s Sky? I’ve got to stop falling for the “news stories” I see with “Release Date” in the title. There is no official release date, but everyone is having lots of fun speculating wildly about it. Most of them seem to think it’ll drop June 2015. My two cents? They’re working on it. Hello Games is a business, and they’d like to release their game as soon as possible so as to make money. But it’s not done. They’ll release it when they’re done. End of story.

I’m really starting to wonder if No Man’s Sky will be able to live up to all the hype. Not only did they create a lot of buzz at E3 2014, winning Best Original Game, Best Independent Game, and Special Commendation for Innovation, but now the game has been nominated for a Design of the Year award.

People are so crazy for this game that they’re falling for a scam where they think they’re getting beta keys for the game. According to Hello Games, THERE ARE NO BETA KEYS for No Man’s Sky. So don’t click on anything that tells you you’re about to get an early stab at the game. It’s all lies 😥

Dragon Age: Inquisition Patches

A week ago today, my PS4 downloaded the Dragon Age: Inquisition Patch 4 update. Just read the release notes yesterday and saw that it would fix the damnable glitch that kept me from discovering all the regions in the Exalted Plains. So I loaded up my finished game save, went to Exalted Plains, and put that shit to bed 😉

I realize that PC players got this fix last month, but for us console players, it was a longer wait. Bioware says their “primary focus was on fixing bugs, particularly ones that blocked progression or hampered the player experience.” Too bad they had to go and fix the influence exploit, too. Boo.

Of course, then there’s PATCH 5!!!!!! Read the post that went up today: Introducing the DAI Patch 5 Beta Program, Featuring the Black Emporium. And what do you know?

In Skyhold, we’re adding party storage to the Undercroft—a new feature that many players asked for and we’re happy to finally add.

YAYAYAYAYAY! Now it’s just a matter of waiting for it to be reality… I won’t recap the whole post, but lucky PC gamers can sign up for the Beta soon. There are a lot of interesting changes and improvements.

Dragon Age: Inquisition Storage Chest!?

w00t! Bioware looking into storage mod for Inquisition.

One of my biggest pet peeves is having to destroy loot. Bad enough having to back track out of a dungeon to store/sell off items (*cough* Elder Scrolls *cough*). Worse when there’s nowhere to store them in the first place! Let’s hope this becomes reality for DA: Inquisition sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t even care if it was part of the DLC like it was for DA: Origins.

No Man’s Sky Tweet

Could this mean a ramp up to the release of No Man’s Sky? Fingers crossed!