From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc


So it's President's Day! If you think I care even less about that than
usual you are correct! Also I don't get it off work, for reasons.

Play:
--=--

Yakuza Kiwami (PS5) - About 40 hours to get to the end, and the little progress meter tells me I saw about 68 percent of the content. I did organically miss some of the more interesting plot points, including a
couple of side stories that illustrate how sharp and educated Haruka is
even for only being nine years old at this point in time. I also skipped
the entirety of the Mesuking minigame (apart from beating Majima twice
to unlock the combat moves) and most of the casino and traditional
gambling games. I think I got what I wanted out of it though, which is
to say that I enjoyed revisiting the narrative themes related to people
having to face up to their responsibilities and the possibility of
failure. This is a throughline that informs all of the content that was
new at the time nine years ago, like the young man who couldn't make it
as a racing driver or all of the expanded story scenes around
Nishikiyama's fall from grace.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS5) - I haven't played this one as much as the first
Kiwami, and I'm trying to speedrun it now that my Kiwami 3 disc is
delayed in the post. I'm doing that thing where I'm levelling up way
past what's necessary for the combat, which doesn't quite make it a
cakewalk but does reduce the amount of time I'm spending on random
encounters. Although now that I've been playing both games back-to-back
I notice that the random encounter rate in this second game is much more reasonable, even when compared to Yakuza 6 where the game engine was essentially perfected. I do also love having the whole narrative laid
out continuously like this, in that I don't think it registered with me
that Ryuji Goda's family was (retroactively) behind almost all of the
Omi treachery in the first game. It's good writing to give the big
Kansai organisation layers and nuance like that.

Want:
--=--

Yakuza Kiwami 3/Dark Ties (PS5) - Snow and wind delayed my parcel so I
didn't get to enjoy the game over the weekend. I'm led to understand
that both halves of the updated game are kind of short and abbreviated.
I'm sure I'll still find plenty to enjoy, but I would bet you any money
that the original Yakuza 3 remaster is the one I'll go back to in the
future.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing gaming-related.

-KKC, weighing the urge to order more JPN-region Yakuza games.
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From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

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

So it's President's Day! If you think I care even less about that than
usual you are correct!

Which reminds me, it's been a while since I played a golf game.

Play:

Lego Star Wars 2 (PSP) - I think I mentioned this previously, but when
I originally replayed this on the PS2, I stopped at a certain point in
Return of the Jedi (an Endor level). And when I played this PSP
version, I ended up doing exactly the same. But at long last, I've
finally bothered finishing off the story. That Endor level is
certainly a bit crap, but not abandon-it-for-four-years crap.

Picross e6 (3DS) - more of the Megas.

Want:

In theory, to play through the PC version of Lego Star Wars - The
Complete Saga, which I barely started at all (making it doubly
incomplete at this point). I'm sure I'll be doing that Real Soon Now.

Bin:

The extent to which I've found myself liking this random cover of
Street Fighter 2 music, apparently an AI job:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTcW2G6k2zY

-Rus.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2