Longinus’ profile

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it. – from Monstrous Regiment.


Demi-fiends Assemble!

June has been a quiet month, I beat Shin Megami Tensei III only to discover that I’ve lost patience with the old gameplay and then I played Marvel’s Avengers to see if it’s as bad as they said: TLDR it is, but for the 3,5€ it cost me it’s pretty good.

 Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster
The demon that created the world (again)

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster

6
50.0 hours
32 of 37 achievements

For the record, I played the PS2 version but a lot has happened since then (ohmy, I'm an old man) and I'm afraid my tolerance for certain game mechanics is not as high as it was then.

I really like the plot and especially that "get your own life" feel because there are no mission markers or a mission report to follow, or anything we're used to by now. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and in fact losing this feeling of being led by the hand is one of the things I liked the most. But that also means you can easily miss a lot of things, because nothing tells you what ending you're destined for depending on what you answer at what times if you don't use a walkthrough. It's pretty dark in that and it can get a little frustrating to realize that you've closed the door on an ending just because you clicked on the wrong answer.

About the graphics… It's a 'Remaster' to call it something because they haven't even bothered to fix the animations in 4:3. And better not to talk about the "HD" textures.

If you play on high difficulty you should know that the rhythm is orthopedic to the max: every 5 seconds you jump a random combat (the rate of enemy appearances is absolutely delirious). I wouldn't have needed to suffer this torture if I had known that for the achievement of beating the game in that difficulty you only needed to activate it in the final fight… My advice is to do it that way 😅

The control is also a bit orthopedic because it is not designed to be done with dual joystick (in fact it keeps the mechanics of rotating the camera with the bumpers).

And, finally, what made me abandon my mission to get it 100% done was that, after spending a good while with Dante's damn mission, being chased and frustrated at every step with his incessant chase… by the time I get it I died with a simple Mudoo attack from a random enemy. Thus losing all progress and hope of ever playing the game again.

Yes, you guessed it, you won't see me playing a Souls (I bought Demons Souls on PS2 and 2 days later I gave it to my brother).

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 Marvel's Avengers - The Definitive Edition
Loot Assemble!

Marvel's Avengers - The Definitive Edition

7
49.7 hours
43 of 50 achievements

Action game with the quintessential Marvel franchise - what could go wrong? Well, I guess it went wrong trying to turn it into a game as a service that in the end only serves to repeat the same type of missions ad nauseam.

And that's what I see as the big problem with this game, it's repetitive to the point of boredom. At most there are 3 types of missions and the long missions simply put the three types together and repeat them until you die or fall asleep.

But the good thing about this game is the story mode. There's nothing groundbreaking, but accompanying Kamala on her journey of discovery as a heroine as she rescues heroes who resent the world from their own misery is a good hook. And following up with Katie Bishop blaming Tony Stark for not making her an Avenger when they had the chance is also cool.

The gameplay is usually to go back and forth across a large stage looking for your target and beating the crap out of everything that moves. Then you have tasks like "defeat 30 enemies of this type but we won't tell you in which missions they appear" to stretch it out like chewing gum.

Oh well, and it has a few bugs. More than once I've had to restart a mission because of objectives that didn't update and you couldn't advance. And, well, some graphical glitches with the explosions that sometimes left you a little blind.

But, as I said, for 3,5€ the story mode is enjoyable.

The rest was to play a bit of Two Point Campus while downloading Avengers and… yes, I confess, I clicked on the banana… but it counts as completed game/thing!

Two for the price of one

April was a complicated month, so I have had to postpone the log until now.
In this time I finished Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (of which I was a backer and I even appear twice in the credits because I participated in the chorus of the final song!), Yakuza: Like a Dragon (It took me a while but I gave it the coup de grace) and I have returned to Night City because at Christmas (!) my brother gave me the DLC Phantom Liberty of Cyberpunk 2077.
Another of my gaming milestones was to return to Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Persona 5 Strikers to record the scenarios and make a comparison between the fictional districts of Kamurocho and Sotenbori from the Yakuza saga with the actual districts of Kabukicho in Tokyo and Dotonbori in Osaka, respectively.
The result (attention, self-promotion) was this video:

Oh right, and since I’ve also had to entertain my beloved nephews some afternoon, I dusted off old games with local multiplayer like Heave Ho, Boomerang Fu, Potion Explosion (discarded because you can’t play with a controller) and We ♥ Katamari (although I only had time to turn it on because I forgot the charger for the ROG Ally 😅). And since I’m weak, I bought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge on sale so I could play with them.

And without further ado, the April and May game reports:

Half-Life 2
More is not necessarily better

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

7/10
83.1 hours
40 of 56 achievements

Mixed feelings, I guess because of the hype of having been a backer of the game.
The game is fine, with that Suikoden-like JRPG style: turn-based role-playing with a team of up to 6 characters that can combine attacks (which are ridiculously less efficient than doing single attacks).
It has a lot of things to polish, but overall it's entertaining.
I'm giving it a higher score because I appear twice in the credits and it makes me happy 😝.
What bothers me most of all are the achievements: ridiculously gargantuan tasks to artificially lengthen the game. Sorry, I've already completed the story and my personal goal of getting all the Heroes, I don't plan to waste more time looking for chests and other nonsense.

Half-Life 2
I came for the game, I stayed for the views

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

7/10
21 of 68 hours
63 of 63 achievements

I finally finished my pending subject. After countless sidequests I started with the main story and I no longer disliked Kasuga, but let's not get excited, he's still a naive and good-natured character so typical of anime.
In the end I found the game system very repetitive and the fact that it is set in Kamurocho (you can only access at the beginning and after the endgame) makes it less fun.
Maybe the change of the game system from being an action saga to a turn-based RPG (which I confess I was attracted to at the beginning) attracted the audience and that's why it was so well valued; but I wasn't completely convinced by it.
Of course, with how well set it is, it brings back a lot of memories of our trips to Japan, so it has been a pleasure to compare reality and fiction (although I miss that there is no Don Quijote) to make the video.

Half-Life 2
The Spy Who Loved Me

Cyberpunk 2077

9/10
72 of 167.9 hours
57 of 57 achievements

I was always very critical with this game ( even though in my first gameplay I barely suffered the bugs that I saw that those who bought it on day one had) because I felt that there were solutions to quests that could have left more freedom. That hasn't changed in the new DLC (for example, it would have been nice to be able to position yourself with the antagonist at the beginning) but it does leave a bit more options, and even includes a new ending!
Even so, I really enjoyed my return to Night City (although most of the new stuff is focused on Dog Town) and I could enjoy again the possibility to deal with the problems in my own way and at my own netrunner pace (I'm a big fan of Batman and stealthy ambushing). So much to raise the score from an 8 to a 9, choom!

Half-Life 2
Heroes in a Half Shell!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

10/10
5 hours
16 of 30 achievements

I bought it partly to play with my nephews but in the end it has been a very pleasant surprise.
It brings back a lot of memories of playing Turtles In Time on my SNES and I love it! What's more, being able to play with up to 6 players! in local co-op is rad. Another thing that I love is that the story mode has a Super Mario 3 map and has a touch of role-playing with the characters leveling up.
You can even throw ninjas from the foot clan at the screen! What more can you ask for? Well, a great soundtrack… And it has it! I love the intro like the 80's series and the metal song of one of the last missions.
I can't say more than that I'm in love with it.
Pizza time!

Ides of March

After Persona 3 Reload arrived in my Steam library, I got another game on sale… We Love Katamari Reroll! It turns out that the same summer that I discovered the Persona saga… my now-wife and I played a lot Katamari Damacy’s sequel! Is it fate? Am I so old that I see coincidence everywhere?

Half-Life 2
Burn my dread

Persona 3 Reload

9/10
124.1 hours
48 of 48 achievements

I'm nostalgia fodder. I've loved playing this game again with updated graphics, but it's not going to get a 10 for several reasons:

A) The improvements that were implemented in Persona 3 Portable have not been used: neither you can choose a female character, nor cameos like Vincent's appear.
B) Atlus has cheated us again: now it turns out that they will add the Aegis chapter in DLC… So, when they could not cut the game into pieces by releasing a great game, they have decided to make us pay again. Unless they give it to me for free, it seems to me that this time it's not going to work.
C) Despite the improvements in the combat (which are many) the dungeon crawl is still monotonous.

Even so, I enjoyed the game a lot.

Half-Life 2
We REALLY Love Katamari

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

9/10
1.7 hours
2 of 35 achievements

I simply love this saga. It's fun, it gives very good vibes, you can play it in split screen with a friend… What more can you ask for? Ah, the King of the Cosmos!
This saga of becoming a dung beetle is the best thing that ever happened to videogames.
It gets a 9 only because you can't play multiplayer online with several friends.

I also tested the beta of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes for those who participated in the crowdfunding campaign.

Half-Life 2
Well... it's only the first beta-impression

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Playtest

6/10
8.0 hours
no achievements

A beta a month before its release and with a bitter aftertaste due to the death of Yoshitaka Murayama has not been a good combination.
The game looks good, but it gives the impression that the launch is very rushed and that it would have been better to be a year in early access as happened with Baldur's Gate III.

Good news for me is that, after a year, I resumed Greedfall and I finished it! I really don’t like that feeling of leaving things half finished so I’m very happy with this.

Half-Life 2
Conquest of the new world

GreedFall

8/10
44.4 hours
50 of 63 achievements

A great action RPG. The atmosphere is great and the background of the fantasy world mixed with historical fiction is brutal: it is the conquest of America by European and Asian states but with a magical background.
That simile of the black plague that strikes the "civilized" world and whose only hope is a mysterious island discovered in recent decades where the local tribes seem to have a unique connection with nature.
I didn't really like the gameplay because it was a bit Souls-like but I loved the story. Fortunately there's an easy game mode… The only thing it does is lower the life bar of the monsters and raise your defense, so you're still going to get hit if you're clumsy like me.

And for that mania of mine of not giving up halfway through, I’ve returned to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, my unfinished business.

Half-Life 2
I keep trying

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

7/10
47 hours
41 of 63 achievements

Seriously. It's not that I dislike it, but I'm not getting passionate about it either. Maybe I had too much hype, I don't know. But, well, I'm going to keep going to see if I'm missing something more than an ambiguous story, with a typical anime protagonist (ie: childish, dreamy and quite silly). Really, I'm trying to like this Japanese comedy… but it just doesn't click for me.

Persona 3 FEBruary Edition

I started February finishing ‘The Quarry’ with my wife and continuing ‘Yakuza: Like a Dragon’ but I had to put it on hold because of the release of ‘Persona 3 Reload’.
For me, the Persona series is one of my many favourites and this release meant I stopped with the rest of the games until I finished it.
Oh, I also won the game ‘Celeste’ on Steamgifts and played it to give a micro review to the person who gave it to me…

Half-Life 2
The school year we live dangerously

Persona 3 Reload

9/10
92 hours
41 of 48 achievements

I played 'Persona 3 FES' for a whole summer on my old PS2 and ended up in love with this game series. Going back to the first Persona I played, with better graphics (Persona 5 style), more content, etc., is like a dream.
I'm loving the experience despite the problem this game always had: the dungeon crawling is super repetitive. The story is cool, having to plan every encounter to get along with everyone…. And now there are events that I didn't remember the PS2 version having! Also, the combat has improved greatly with a lot of aids so you don't have to remember what element did damage to each type of shadow… Great job, Atlus!
It gets a 9 because the nostalgia factor raises the score, and the truth is that I'm enjoying it a lot.

Half-Life 2
Do you know the Witch of Hawkett's Quarry?

The Quarry

6/10
10.8 hours
21 of 40 achievements

Like other games of this style, this is a "movie" in which you decide the actions (but not the fate) of the characters. In this case they leave enough freedom to remove QTE and other annoying mechanics, because in the end you always mess up with your decisions.
Otherwise we have the usual: a group of annoying teenagers who get trapped in a deadly camp.
Even so, we found it more enjoyable than previous games of this type… maybe it's because you can eliminate the damn QTE.
Just don't expect that the wise choices you make will be the ones that save the character. That's the magic of terror.

Half-Life 2
The dragon will have to wait

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

6/10
39.1 hours
34 of 63 achievements

Nothing new under the sun since I started playing. I progressed a bit in the story but I still see the seams in these graphics so… early 21st century SEGA?

Half-Life 2
There must be better ways to torture oneself

Celeste

3/10
4.4 hours
7 of 32 achievements

"One of the best platform games" they said. Well, that's why I entered the giveaway and that's why I was looking forward to trying it out. What I didn't know was what kind of platforms they were referring to: the ones that make you measure every move of a suicidal character through a web of impossible platforms that make you yell at the screen as if you were possessed by a demon and make you want to throw the gamepad against the wall.
Sorry, midcore gamers are more about FEZ than wanting to waste time trying over and over again to beat a level where you die in a different place each time. I miss the super transcendental background of the story, but I'd rather do that than buy a new screen.
Definitely not my cup of tea.

Starting the year like a dragon

The year has started well: finishing Baldur’s Gate 3 and other games, starting some others that I had pending and… Waiting for Friday to start Persona 3 Reload!

Half-Life 2
Long live the King

Baldur's Gate 3

11/10
135.6 hours
54 of 54 achievements

I enjoyed this game from start to finish, getting lost everywhere and trying to solve problems in the craziest ways the game would allow me to do. The journey has been great and I have enjoyed every stop. Of course, I'm not fond of replaying games and for the achievements that meant a complete game with another character at the end I had to use other people's saves… I hope Saint Completist forgives me this fault 😳

Half-Life 2
The nightmare is over

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

4/10
6.7 hours
7 of 30 achievements

It's funny because we just left him a few minutes before the end. But I don't recommend it at all. We finished it, buried it and will never talk about it again.

Half-Life 2
A Game Nobody Wants to Know

ONE PUNCH MAN: A HERO NOBODY KNOWS

5/10
25.9 hours
47 of 47 achievements

I'm a big fan of the One Punch-Man manga and I love that they make games from the saga but… this "fighting" game is a mess. Terrible controls, soporific gameplay and crazy load times just to start a fight.
Just playing it really knocks you down with one punch… (pun intended)

Although I have finished these three, there has been time to start a couple that are in the making:

Half-Life 2
Teen Wolf

The Quarry

7/10
8.8 hours
17 of 40 achievements

After "House of Ashes" we were left with a bad taste so we decided to try this game that has absolutely all the dynamics with one caveat: you can remove the damn heartbeats.
Much better experience and with a story of teenagers at a summer camp being besieged by evil forces coming from the woods. What more could you ask for a fright night?

Half-Life 2
Like a Drunken Dragon

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

6/10
36.1 hours
31 of 63 achievements

I have mixed feelings: I like the Judgement saga and, given that the gameplay is more JRPG style I was expecting a lot more changes in this game compared to the Yakuza saga.
Let's see, I like the game with that mix of Dragon Quest and Yakuza, but there are parts of the storyline really regrettable and situations that make me feel really uncomfortable. Saving the twisted and retrograde morality of certain situations, the game is fun but it suffers from the same thing that annoyed me in Judgement: the animations of the characters are very corseted. The characters look like dolls pretending to be human beings. I don't know, it's as if for years SEGA didn't want to leave their comfort zone and they've been stuck in old fashioned graphics and animations. Maybe they're trying to give you a nostalgia that I don't really have, or maybe it's just that this wasn't my game. For me it's overrated.

I only downloaded “Dungeons & Dragons Online” and “Killing Floor 2” to get free game items, so I don’t even bother to create a panel for them.

Happy assassination to all!

December’s Gate 2023

If we don’t count the daily visits to Genshin Impact, this month has practically been for Baldur’s Gate 3. Game of the year!

Half-Life 2
Game of the century!

Baldur's Gate 3

11/10
118.6 hours
28 of 54 achievements

118 hours and I still haven't decided to finish it, there's so much to see and so many ways to solve the problems that I can't stop experimenting (and constantly saving the game because… epic fails)! Love it!

Well, I’ve also been messing around a bit with RetroArch but only because I got the retro nostalgia 😅
Compared to November, when I played a lot of hours, this month has been more relaxed due to personal issues and because I’ve started drawing again.

Zomvember

This month has been more varied than the previous one… After finishing Temtem (and being tortured by its endgame that I finally abandoned) I continued with the wonderful Baldur’s Gate III. It has so many possibilities that I still haven’t finished it!

Half-Life 2
Our love broke

Temtem

6/10
119 hours
11 of 47 achievements

It was fun to remember old times with this online "Pokémon", but in the engame became tedious to have to plan for every damn battle.
Also, getting every damn achievement is a damn odyssey.
It's over for me.

Half-Life 2
Bring out the role player in me

Baldur's Gate 3

10/10
71.7 hours
20 of 54 achievements

I haven't finished it yet and they have already released an update to play in Custom mode that allows you to roleplay more by hiding the required roll to succeed dice checks, hiding enemy HP in battle, hiding failed Perception Checks, etc. I love it!

If someone comes home and tells me they’ve never played Left 4 Dead 2 I feel obliged to show them what they’ve been missing all this time. Playing it on LAN brings back so many memories….

Half-Life 2
Bring lead, walking dead!

Left 4 Dead 2

10/10
183.0 hours
54 of 101 achievements

A classic to play with friends. I can't get enough of it and especially thanks to the incredible modder community that has created so many amazing maps and campaigns. I really love this game.

And we also have a horror game/movie because my wife loves the genre and we had to do something after Halloween.

Half-Life 2
I really hate QTE

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

4/10
6.2 hours
6 of 30 achievements

My wife tends to like these games more than I do, because I hate QTE with all my being. In fact, we haven't finished the game yet because I'm so angry that I've lost a couple of characters to this counterproductive mechanic. I really hate it. But since we're near the end and I don't like to leave things unfinished, I figure that sometime in December I'm going to end the game so I never have to play it again.

I only give it a 4 because the story is interesting with that mix of genres, but nothing more.

Ah, recently a ROG Ally came home and I was “forced” to test how well it emulated games so I gave RetroArch a little try. Just to remember very old times… because when I got over the melancholy I installed a few Epic and Steam games.

Half-Life 2
Melancholy, here I come!

RetroArch

9/10
2.2 hours
no achievements

What can be said? It emulates retro consoles and arcades… What more can you ask for when you feel like remembering old times.
And it doesn't get a 10 just because I had to set up a couple of things, if it had been totally for dummies I'd give it a 10.

Temtober

That’s right. This month the only thing I played was Temtem and I still haven’t reached the end because I’m too busy trying to catch them all!

Half-Life 2
Don't say Temtem, say Pokémon Online...

Temtem

7
77.7 hours
7 of 47 achievements

Almost there, almost there. I'll finish this Pokémon nostalgia exercise in no time… ^___^U

Not this September

This month has been soft because I spent the last half of the month traveling. I tried Temtem and Trek to Yomi, which I got in Steamgifts; I resumed a fighting game of One Piece that I had left halfway through and I played what I could of Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m not complaining, because I enjoyed everything (the games and especially the travel).

Baldur's Gate 3
Love it

Baldur's Gate 3

10/10
41.3 hours
13 of 53 achievements

I wish I had more time to play it, but I save it for when I know I have a few hours free to play.

Temtem
Don't say Pokémon online, say Temtem.

Temtem

7/10
9.3 hours
1 of 47 achievements

What I expected from Pokémon when the Internet era started, a Spanish indie studio had to make it. It's entertaining, but the MMO component doesn't quite fit me and sometimes gives me the impression of being a pay to win.
I've only played the first gym, but as soon as they gave me the surfboard and the world opened up, I completely skipped the story.

Trek to Yomi
This journey is hell

Trek to Yomi

6/10
6.6 hours
22 of 28 achievements

The Kurosawa film style is great, the plot of the warrior who descends to Hell and then returns to fight his enemy is quite cliché but it works.
It entertains, which is not little, but too difficult for my taste. So I'm not going to replay it to see the path of revenge and the path of love.

ONE PIECE BURNING BLOOD
Gomu Gomu no Pistol!

ONE PIECE BURNING BLOOD

6/10
9.3 hours
46 of 50 achievements

It's not the best fighting game, but it's not bad either. Quite repetitive, especially in the story mode where you do the same path, but with different characters (it's normal, it only covers a small arc of the One Piece story).

August is ending…

I finish August with the two games I had left to finish in July:

Half-Life 2
Dude, where is my dragon ball?

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

7,5/10
97.0 hours
53 of 61 achievements

I liked it, although as it tries to be a kind of MMO it has too much insubstantial content. Doing 100% means playing online and that's not really my thing, so I'm satisfied with everything I've managed to get out of it.

Subnautica
You must play it!

Subnautica

10/10
25.4 hours
no achievements

I loved it. I didn't expect it to be so good and I was surprised by its good gameplay. And what a great idea to add a mode in which you don't have to worry about food or drink, for those of us who are not lovers of survival games.

My brother kindly gifted me Baldur’s Gate 3, another great game. I haven’t had much time to play it this month because it coincided with the Genshin Impact update and a lot of work, but the little I’ve played I’m really enjoying it!

Half-Life 2
Stupid Sexy Mind Flayer!

Baldur's Gate 3

10/10
38.2 hours
9 of 53 achievements

I haven't even gotten past the first chapter yet because I get lost watching it all! I still think it's an epic game. I love that I can't even do a good action because the dice hate me xD