From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc


I don't think anybody's ever gotten in so much trouble for suggesting
that governments be kinder to refugees.

Play:
--=--

Like a Dragon: Ishin (PS5) - Am I moving the main story along? Or am I
earning money doing *all* the odd jobs in Kyo so that I can pay off
Haruka's debt and own her house outright? It's sort of amazing how
satisfying it is to earn money in this game, in that once you get tired
of fishing or growing produce you can go earn a bunch of money on the
chicken races or help out the clueless couriers on really high-ticket deliveries. I seemed to make the best money on the wanted man missions,
which seem to be leading to an actual story payoff all on their own.
Anyway, 100 ryo have been earned and the house is paid off and now I
discover that only ten percent of players have ever unlocked that
particular trophy/achievement thing. Who are these heartless bastards
who aren't paying off Haruka's debt?

There is an interesting thing to observe here, in that Ryoma notices the
best in people even as they're being hard-hearted or otherwise
compromising themselves to live in their harsh world. He calls out the landlord not for exploiting a teenage debtor, but for not charging
interest as he assumes the loan. He lets a thief off the hook because
he's stealing for his dying child. After defeating a literal dozen
ninjas in battle his first instinct is to ask about their motivations
rather than cut them down. And he encouters a fistful of westerners and
gives them all a chance to prove themselves on their own merits rather
than judge them on his past experience with foreigners. Like with Kiryu
before him, I relate to this forgiving attitude that Ryoma has about the
world and wish that I could apply it in my real life.

Procession to Calvary (Switch) - Sadly, this is still a mouse-driven
game even on the game systems. I may be too thick to suss out whether
there's a console-friendly control system where you can just move the character around rather that tapping on the screen where you want her to
go, but for now I'm probably giving this a miss until I'm in a mood to appreciate it more.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (XSX) - This is aggressively okay. It is for
sure a Souls-like in that it apes all of the From play mechanisms and
tries its best not to let you konw that. But the difficulty is all over
the map and levelling system doesn't make much sense, and the combat
isn't at all satisfying. For all that the marketing made about the Three Kingdoms source inspiration it's a startlingly generic horror fantasy
setting too, all dark and cloudy landscapes with narrow valley passages
that all look alike. I'll probably buy an actual copy to have once the
Game Pass copy expires, but I won't pay full price for it.

Want:
--=--

My Evercade EXP Limited (Evercade) - Shipping soon! Probably. I bet the there's an aeroplane accident or like an alien landing or something that
keeps me from having one still.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $484

-KKC, who wanted to make an AUKUS joke but it was too far a reach.
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From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Play:

Minecraft (PSV) - started a second Vita save using a known-goodish
seed, having finally looked one up. It has most structures and biomes
and a village, but the main thing is probably just that it isn't 80%
snow like my first one, so e.g. it's actually possible to move around
with a boat to some extent. I don't know how much I'll really play on
this save, but I at least got to the point of having full iron armour
and making the cleared-out desert temple into a base. I'm tempted to
beat the End boss on it too, but the grind required before you can get
to the End dimension in this version is a pain. (That said, I think in
this case I might be able to shorten it by trading items in the
village.)

Want:

Potentially one or two of the PS4 (etc.) Saturn Tribute games released
by City Connection, which are apparently ports of Saturn games (mostly
puzzlers and shmups, but also Elevator Action Returns) based on a
certain engine used at the time. I'm not sure the PS4 really needed a
second port of Puzzle Bobble 2 though. :-)

Bin:

The framerate on Vita Minecraft, especially if you play it after the
PS4 version. The scenery popup when using a boat can also be
impressively severe.

Old-style villages in older Minecraft versions - unfortunately, the
Vita missed out on the update which changed these. If nothing else
this seems to mean no villager chests to steal^Wborrow items from.

-Rus.
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