There are aspects of Sunless Sea that appeal to me, but the whole thing is just a bit eh.

The amount of sheer inconvenience in the mechanics like not having London storage and such is just irritating, and the core roguelike gameplay of sailing places isn't particularly enjoyable especially since you can't fight most zee monsters until you get a much better boat than the one you start with, much less the "boss" creatures. And that boring core gameplay is ultimately going to be the vast majority of the game. It can create some great moments when you survive harrowing situations and is good at creating a nailbiting, teeth-clenched atmosphere as you balance fuel, food, and madness, but as I said it jjust isn't particularly fun nor varied.

The true draw is the writing, but every story plot usually requires zailing back and forth across the zee multiple times and the nature of "Something Awaits You" means that its built to give you these litle tiny bites of story between massive amounts of unfun zailing and usually requires niche items to progress.

Now the writing is actually quite great, the creators definitely showed off their Fallen London skills here and they can do great amounts of atmosphere and mood in only a few sentences like -

but the writing is brief, the plots often short in actual material relying on massive amounts of the core gameplay to provide length, which is unenjoyable.

Overall, I love the game, but its such a chore to play and there's so many pointless inconveniences that it makes it extremely irritating.

 

Those two bits of writing now have me wanting to play the Sunless Sea.

You have no idea what sort of shit I'll tolerate for good writing in video games.

Grinding is the least of it.

 

It's a good game, but it does come with a.. not a learning curve, but a "getting used to the style"-curve.

It's supposed to be slightly inconvenient. You're not supposed to be zipping everywhere and defeating problems quickly. You're supposed to be a lone zailor surrounded by eldritch monstrosities barely holding on to your sanity after you've made the stupid decision to brave the waters for little gain.

I did manage to beat it, but it took a long time, and I wasn't touching "hardcore" mode with a stick. While I appreciate the effort it would take to finish things with no manual saving: Fuck no, not for me.

Make sure you have fuel. Don't dim your lights past 70 sanity. Visit London often so you don't kill everyone around you in a haze of madness.

 

I can't get excited for VR. For one thing, when I tried to demo them at two separate conventions recently, they were completely booked. I didn't even have the option to wait in line.

Coupled with the price tag, I'm probably not getting involved with it for a few years.

 

So I just confirmed my PSVR bundle order from Best Buy (Amazon sold out in minutes )

However I have yet to see definitive confirmation on whether there are issues with VR and nystagmus and until I do I'm unfortunately bracing myself to cancel that.

 

I'm pre-ordering tonight, I've already got the camera and wands, so it's even cheaper.

Rez, Eve Valkyrie, Ace Combat and RIGS swayed me. Can't wait.

 

Marketing. Hype. Etc.

 

I know the feeling Jon, what are you waiting on specifically? For me, at the moment, it's Bravely Second.

 

For me the waiting list is massive and only seems to have gotten bigger lately.

Dishonored 2, Uncharted 4, Persona 5, Overwatch, SMT IV: Final, Mass Effect just got delayed til next year which sucks but it was on the list as well (#1 actually). Then throw in Horizon: Zero Dawn, Pokemon, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered and Tomb Raider which I'll most likely end up grabbing.

Out of all those Persona 5 is probably my biggest want this year, Dishonored a close second.

 

My list and number one is virtually identical.

Add FFXV, speaking of which, the event where they'll announce release date with a huge info dump is next week.

Edit: oh, and Last Guardian.

 

Launch trailer for the Japan release, full of spoilers, so you've been warned:

DARK SOULS Ⅲ　発売ロンチトレーラー　【2016.3】

 

Truly VR is the future we deserve.

https://twitter.com/9_volt88/status/714501458184548352

 

I was in class and missed that livestream and the archive isn't up yet and I'm veeerry sad.

 

I was watching it at work. # priorities

 

These PS4K rumours will not go away.

Super curious if true. Funny too, especially since three of my friends just bought PS4s.

 

FFXV event starting now.

 

So I started playing Undertale to see what all the fuss is about.

If the rumors are true, may God have mercy on my soul.