Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@RogerRoger First of all another fantastic review that I throughly enjoyed reading.

Second of all "It means that attempting to 100% these games is now, er... what's the opposite of "insurmountable", is it "mountable"...? No, that sounds wrong. Very wrong. Anyway, it's doable."
This still sounds very wrong 🤣 Although if something was mountable this surely means its higher ranked than just doable? I'm talking about gaming I assure you 🤣.

All bad jokes aside, I will miss Reading your reviews and I will keep this short because I type on this site on my phone and it becomes a big of a nightmare doing long winded post buy honestly mate, your writing has been top notch and you should do what you want to do with it, I'm sure you will be great! Write what you want to write and see where it goes, doing nothing will only ever leave you with the feeling of what if. When you do have a best seller though just put a little nod to RogerRoger in there so all us at PushSqaure can smile when we realise we have a super star author in here with us 😀 Good luck

@RogerRoger I wish you the best of luck pursuing your dreams and I hope you will succeed. I know for sure that everyone that really follows this topic can see your writing qualities and will cheer their hearts out for your succes.

@RogerRoger Screw stopping doing reviews here to pursue writing novels. Chasing childhood dreams is ridiculous, just like having childhood dreams that just get crushed and then you work at Starbuck's or Walmart your whole life....

Kidding aside, good luck with pursuing your writing career. There is nothing to add that people haven't already said, but your reviews here since I've become a bigger part of the community here have been fantastic. They were always a good read (I sometimes actually read the whole thing.... lol). Lastly, I hope you never have a good enough gaming experience from this day forward so you never get the urge to write a review again.... I mean once again, good luck.

@RogerRoger Oh wow. Not what I was expecting to read this morning. Although I had the feeling something was up with you based on the tone of some of your posts.

Coming from someone who is something of a coward, and who has squandered countless opportunities for advancement and personal growth in my life, I can attest there is a lot of truth to the idea that, no matter how you feel in the moment, it's the chances you never take that will haunt you to your dying day.

So yeah, if you've had a realization about yourself, if there's a story in there that's been screaming to come out since you were young, then go for it. We probably only get one chance at life, after all. And you definitely have a unique voice that people respond to.

If you have any issues in the process of writing your novel, if you feel discouraged, silly, or like you're unable to mirror the images in your head with the words on the page, also know that such experiences are normal as well. Writing is necessarily hard: it's forging order from the chaos of electrical signaling in our brains. It's almost magical, in a way.

Just remember, no matter how often you stumble, you only truly fail when you give up. Everything else is just a part of the process.

Welp, that's enough cliches for now. Don't be a stranger now!

Neon Genesis Evangelion. A psychological thriller/mecha anime from the mid-90s that had a gargantuan influence on Japanese media, and is at least partially responsible for the resurgence of anime as a medium around that time. Video games, also. Stuff like Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears drew heavy inspiration from it.

The software I used was the Google search engine. Unlike my Vita, I never hacked my 3DS, so I currently have no way to create or export screenshots, unfortunately.

It sounds stupid, but I'd probably play my 3DS more if it had such a functionality. I hate having to use other peoples' screen grabs.

@RogerRoger I don’t know you well enough to get away with saying this but I’m living on the edge today: About time! And Godspeed!!!

@RogerRoger Well, even my cold dead heart will read a "goodbye" post. Obviously in this sense just your reviews are going bye bye, but still, you get the idea.

Things are back to normal though as I only read my part of your post...

@RogerRoger The best of luck with your novel, definitely follow your dreams! I know what you mean about this being a great place to hone your writing skills, I definitely know that I want to pursue journalism now after putting pen to paper (fingers to keys?) on a few formal reviews and lots and lots of informal reviews. It’s also true what Ral says, it’s what we regret not doing that haunts us most. I’d rather something not work out than not giving it a go in the first place!

@RogerRoger I'm so happy to hear that your experience writing reviews here has had such a great effect on your confidence! I lurk on this forum a lot more than I actively post, but I have to come out the woodwork and say this time that your reviews were easily a big part of the experience. I feel bad for never replying much before, but luckily there were a lot of other people who were making sure you knew your work was appreciated! Hell hath truly frozen over if we're losing you of all people in this thread now. Who else could I have counted on to turn me onto Life is Strange 2 and ruin my life, haha? Selfishly, I hope there'll be plenty of games in your future that you just can't help but write about... but I hope more so that working on your novel will really end up being your dream come true. It's a hard and terrifying prospect to chase your dreams and I have so much respect for you for taking the jump. And hey, I'm certain that after our many exchanges about Mass Effect back in the day you know a thing or two about good writing, so I'm not all that worried! Maybe give us a tease on what it's about...? You know, to tide us over with you leaving us all hanging for the next half a year if not longer! Hehe.

Best of luck, Roger. I'll reach out again when you're a big shot writer and want something from you. 😜

@RogerRoger I just wanted to reach out and wish you the best of luck! It's daunting starting something new and I hope that different form of writing brings you joy, first and foremost 😀

@RogerRoger
Thanks for all the times your words have made me laugh or the times I've just been astounded by your way with words.
Best of luck pal, hope it all works out for you.

@RogerRoger
Best of luck to you on this exciting adventure, I salute your bravery and I'm confident you will do very well.

Stray (Steam)

• One day four cats are chillin' around exploring & living their best life, however an orange kitty (that's you) slips off a pipe and falls into a facility known as "Walled City 99". It's a post apocalyptic affair, with sentient robots struggling to survive, and hints of a human population that's long since vanished.
  
  "Hey, where you going?"
• Determined to find a path back to the outside world, you'll lead your kitty through a largely linear adventure largely involving some sort puzzle platforming, though there are a couple of open areas as well (these tend to be safe zones of sorts, where you'll interact with the robotic denizens & take on tasks, some optional, to help them out in your quest to escape).
  
  Metal Gear Cuddly (you even get to hide in boxes!)
• Early on in the adventure you'll team up with a mysterious drone who has many uses (he acts as translator when reading signs/talking to robots, has a flashlight for dark areas, is your inventory, can interact with computer terminals, and also has one or two other temporary uses which I won't spoil).
• There isn't much in terms of side content, with the largest activity being the acquisition of "Memories", which reveal more about the world & what happened to it. 5 of them you'll get automatically just by playing through it, though there are usually 2 or 3 hidden off path during each linear segment, and a whole bunch hidden in out of the way locations in the open segments (the vast majority). You don't need to worry about them until the drone joins up with you though, as only he can access them (I obtained all but two). Otherwise there are some optional activities you can undertake to help out the robots, like collecting music sheets for a musician, though other than adding a little color to the world these serve no purpose (though I think you get pins, which are added to your kitty's vest, as you complete them).
• It does go out of it's way to make you feel like a cat, whether it be the controversial jumping system (where you can only make precise, calculated jumps to areas the cat knows it can reach) which I didn't have issue with, the ability to meow, and designated areas where you can nap, scratch furniture, nudge a robot's legs, and knock stuff off surfaces (some of which are used to solve problems).
  
  "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"
• The kitty stuff absolutely can be cute at the right times, but I am quite surprised at how wholesome & cute the game's reputation as a whole is. Don't get me wrong, the world is absolutely interesting & there is some humor peppered here & there, though it's dour & sombre more often than not, & there are even a couple areas that nearly go all in on a zombie apocalypse like vibe (not gory, but would still be nightmare inducing for younger players I'd imagine, but I don't want to get too detailed for fears of spoiling).
  
  
  
  Not so warm & fuzzy (it gets worse).
• It's an absolutely gorgeous game graphically too, with a presentation that stands alongside some of the best looking AAA titles I've played. I've heard it can be a bit glitchy, but I really didn't have that experience myself (just one instance where I could jump to a platform that no longer existed, which was more funny than anything).
  
  
  
  
  
  Various shots, ending with a pretty glitchy kitty.

@RogerRoger, According to my Steam page, it looks like just a bit over 7 hours (probably not quite enough to hit 8 hours even if I did locate the other 2 memories). Not that that bothers me, as I'll soon be starting Xenoblade Chronicles 3 which will probably last me 100+ hours (probably 2-3 months to get through it).

As for the tone, I won't spoil any of the story, but I'll put this next part in spoiler quotes just in case (but read it if you want to know how bad it gets in terms of it's horror influence). For a good chunk of the game you'll have to contend with swarms of Zurks, mutated "rat" like enemies (they're not rats, but I don't want to spoil what they are), and during the climax of that section where you're deepest into their territory, the environment will be covered with a fleshy reddish pink film (which you can see in one of my shots), Zurks will burst out of Alien like egg sacs (which you can see in the screen posted above the former), & the fleshy walls will be covered with multiple red eyes that follow you around & quiver in unison calling more Zurks to pour out of the ceiling & walls.

@RR529 Heh, can't say I was expecting a horror-tinged atmosphere for this one. Although I think the cuteness of the protagonist probably heavily works against that, thus giving the game its "wholesome" vibes.

It's fun that they include areas where you can do 'cat things' like rubbing up on legs and stretching claws on furniture. Although it's not truly complete unless you're able to knock at least one cup filled with liquid off a table for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Great looking screenshots. Out of interest, what GPU are you running with?

I'd heard the PC port was unsatisfactory, but it doesn't sound like you had a bad time with it.

@Ralizah, I have a laptop that has an RTX 3070 (of course, being a laptop, I don't think it gets as much power out of it, even when plugged in, as you would in a desktop).

Based on the very first area it wasn't able to run it consistently at 60 fps (it would be there most of the time, but careen down to the 40's at certain times), so I set it to 30 fps which it held flawlessly throughout (high graphics settings throughout at 1080p).

@RR529 Oh, OK. Yeah, even a mobile 3070 should be running this indie cat game at a very high framerate.

For the record, the "recommended" GPU for Stray is a GTX 780.

@Ralizah, yeah, then I'm not really sure why it was dipping (to be fair, I never tried to run it at an even higher frame rate).

Same thing for LEGO Star Wars: the Skywalker Saga. It was able to hit 60 fps most of the times (usually in the open world/space environments), however it could go as low as the mid 40's in some of the bespoke levels.

I think Tales of Arise was usually in the 40's - 50's for me to, depending on what I was doing.

Hey @Ralizah I was just looking at the initial post/the directory and I think it's exceeded the limit of words/characters of the post as it's randomly cut off from the looks of things?

@HallowMoonshadow @RogerRoger Damn. I wonder how long that's been happening...

I didn't think it'd just start cutting off characters at the end of the post when it hit whatever the character limit is.

Guess that means I'll be have to run through the thread again to see what posts it wiped out. X, Y, and Z, by the look of it.

Rog, I'm going to soon shift hosting duties for N - Z over to you, if it's not too much trouble. It should be simple enough to just copy them over to the second post. @ me when you do so that I can erase them from my current post.

After I find out which reviews were erased, I'll temporarily re-add them to the end of my post so that you can copy them over.

Appreciate the help.

I found out who it is.

... It's @velio84.

I only looked at three reviews and noted that they were only a post or two off from there they should've linked to so they weren't a regular in that thread (and some earlier posts are fine so I assumed they were a newer member) and then just looked back about 7/8 pages in the chat thread to notice his responses were gone.