1. The newly-announced Titanfall / Xbox One bundle sounds intriguing, it really does. Except… I still kinda don’t give a shit about Titanfall. Which is, of course, not Titanfall’s fault; my friends who were in the beta say it’s pretty awesome, and I’d expect nothing less. It’s just that: (a) I’m still not all that into multiplayer shooters, and (b) with each new major multi-platform release, comparisons between the PS4 and the XBO make it that much clearer that the PS4 is the better-performing console. I’d get the XBO if there were a true killer app for it that specifically appeals to my tastes – and, indeed, that day may yet come – but for now, I’d rather keep that $500 in my savings account if I can.
2. I was curious to try the Final Fantasy 14 beta over the weekend, but the installer kept crashing. After spending 20 minutes signing up and creating passwords and squinting like mad to read the fine print (is there really no way to expand the internet within an app?), everything seemed like it was OK, but then the installer would conk out once it hit 20%. It’s just as well, I suppose – I can’t really afford to get sunk into an MMO right now anyway.
3. I continue to make progress in Bravely Default; my party is level 35 or so, my town is pretty much fully rebuilt, and the difficulty level is now starting to weave all over the place; dungeon mobs are still mostly one-turn kills, but bosses and “asterisk fights” are ludicrously hard. It is not quite getting tedious, but I think that’s because I’m still only playing in short bursts.
4. Reviews for the new Thief are all over the place; mostly negative, but some reviewers are willing to cut it some more slack than others. Here’s the part where I tell you that I’m aware of, but never played, the original, highly regarded trilogy, and so my interest in this game is purely out of wanting something to play on the PS4. I did play one Thief game a while ago – was it the the one on the original Xbox? – and it suffered from a lot of the same problems that Deus Ex II did, which makes sense since I think they were using the same engine. And I wasn’t particularly good at it, though I think that’s because my experience with stealth games was largely influenced by Splinter Cell, and you really can’t play Thief like you’re Sam Fisher. So I’m hoping that I can be a bit more patient with this one, if only so that I can not send it back after 10 minutes.
5. Speaking of having (or not having) patience, here’s a funny story. I rented Far Cry 2 when it first came out in 2008; played for 5 minutes, died in the very first shootout, and said “fuck it”; sent it back to Gamefly. In the intervening years, Far Cry 2 has taken on this mythical “greatest game ever” status among certain critics and people I greatly admire, and there was always a little part of me that wondered if I gave up on it too quickly. Fast forward to this past weekend, where Ubisoft had a massive Steam sale. I looked up at one point and saw that Far Cry 2 was being sold for something like $2.49. Picked it up immediately. Loaded it up. Died in the exact same first shootout, screen faded to black.
BUT THEN THE SCREEN FADED BACK UP AGAIN. And a man was talking to me and the game was teaching me how to heal myself.
All this time, I’d thought I just sucked at Far Cry 2. I never knew that you’re supposed to get knocked out in that first shootout. I am an idiot.
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Today’s subject title is from the excellent self-titled album by The Forms.
Shouts From The Couch 