The Backlog Check-in Vol. 143: 9/26/20: Baldur's Gate III/Crash Bandicoot 4/Genshin Impact Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Nothing

Finished: Nothing

Playing: ?

Added: American Fugitive, Ary and the Secret of Seasons, Ashen, Batman The Telltale Series: Shadows Edition, Dragon’s Crown Pro, Dragon Star Varnir, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Illusion of L’Phalcia, The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga, Monochrome Order, Monster Viator, Seek Hearts, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Wizards of Brandel

The reason why I haven't been around much lately is because I've been feeling lousy. I've been spending the majority of my days and nights lying on my couch reading/watching videos on my phone, and napping. I don't have an appetite, and have to force myself to eat. I was diagnosed with Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) which is a serious condition of diabetes. I'm skin and bones now despite eating, because one of the symptoms of DKA is that it eats away at my fat and muscles. My doctor was on vacation all last week, but I see her this Thursday. I need to get on a long acting insulin since it's the lack of insulin that causes this condition.

One thing that I've been reading are some of my old posts on IGN, and they're cringe-worthy. I can't believe how I acted back then. I was brash, condescending and disrespectful. It’s embarrassing to think that's who I was back then, because that's not who I am now.

In other news, Baldur's Gate III, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time and Genshin Impact all come out this week. It turns out that Genshin Impact is a free to play gacha game which I admit is disappointing to find out since I was expecting it to be a regular game. It's an anime style third person open world action RPG that can be played single player, or co-op. Despite being structured like a single player JRPG, it's always played online and has gacha elements. While I think that it will still be fun, it's probably going to be grind-y since that's the nature of gacha games.

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Still hmmm, lol

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 35 games

Phase, sorry to hear about your health...hope you are able to get that under control. And yes, I'm sure the old IGN posts are going to be bad for everybody.

[crimson_tide]

I feel for you fam, Phase. I hope you can get it under control and get back to feeling like yourself sooner than later! Keep you in my thought, fam.

And IGN has message boards? I...I don't know what you're talking about. No sir, this is the first message board I ever visited, scout's honor! That's some other crimson_tide that posted there...there, that should throw them off . Seriously though, I can't even try to go back there, I was very, VERY different then. I don't even wanna think about it. Yikes...sorry I was really mean to you back then Phase. It's just video games, it was not cool.

And because I am lazy, here is my post copy pasted from last week! ...mostly because very little has changed

Played: Persona 5 Royal

Beat: 

Bought: Persona Dancing Endless Night Collection (DANCE BATTLES!!!), SAO Hollow...Sword...358/2? I don't know, I own 3 SAO games and all I know for sure is that I am supposed to hate Kirito. I don't even know what that means...

This week:...I...I think...it might actually be wrapping up  !!! Of course, with this game wrapping up might mean 20-30 more hours but progress is being made!

I swear fam...these mofos ALL need editors! Look, LOVE me some nice, long games and all...but c'mon man, they just drag everything out soooooo long for no reason. This, Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, even flipping Sleeping Dogs and Mordor as short as they were could have cut so much out and been much, much tighter experiences. We really collectively need to stop worrying about how many hours it takes to justify our purchase/playthrough of a game. That's a terrible judge of a game's quality. It just incentivizes them to keep making the hour count go up. I want to experience a game, not have it be a second job or something  . Don't get it twisted, LOVE Persona 5 Royal but they could have tightened this up a lot and still gotten to the point I am at now and I would still be over the moon in love with this game. The exposition dumps and constant reassuring of my now oddly codependent squad is getting to be a bit much...

[Phaseknox]

Phase, sorry to hear about your health...hope you are able to get that under control.

I feel for you fam, Phase. I hope you can get it under control and get back to feeling like yourself sooner than later! Keep you in my thought, fam.

Thanks.

IGN has message boards? I...I don't know what you're talking about. No sir, this is the first message board I ever visited, scout's honor! That's some other crimson_tide that posted there...there, that should throw them off .

Seriously though, I can't even try to go back there, I was very, VERY different then. I don't even wanna think about it. Yikes...sorry I was really mean to you back then Phase. It's just video games, it was not cool.

There's no need to apologize, I was notorious for pushing people's buttons back then. If anything, I should be apologizing to all of you for my past behavior.

[argyle]

Games added: 13 Sentinels

Last week: Finished nothing, played ...uhhh...something, I'm sure. Maybe some Bloodstained? Kinda wrapped that up for now, didn't finish it but I've finished it before...probably dabbled with something else. Who knows.

This week: I've been messing with Genshin Impact a little. Looking for something else to play, but honestly everything I WANT to play right now comes out in Nov.

So yeah, Phase, we all said stupid things back on the IGN boards. Heck, I've said stupid things here I'm sure. FWIW, I'm glad you stuck around as even tho we've had our disagreements in the past I really value your opinion & input on things. That goes for all of you guys. Alright, who's choppin' onions in here???

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Also Phase, I hope things start getting better with your health. Hang in there!

Crim, I'm glad you re-pasted what you said last week because I meant to comment on it then - I'm completely with you with game length. CD Project Red recently said that the main storyline in Cyberpunk is shorter than Witcher 3 because so many people never finished that game. I think my split-second knee jerk reaction to reading that was kinda "what, I'm getting less game?" but that was VERY short lived, because I quickly realized "y'know, it took me something like 3 years to actually finish Witcher 3...". I have games in my backlog now - heck, Persona 5 Royal is one of them - that I'd like to play, but every time I look at them I see that LOOOONG playtime and just can't make myself commit to it. Then if you make the mistake of putting something down before finishing it with the intention of coming back to it, often I at least will have forgotten how to play the stupid thing. This happened with Darksiders 3 recently, tried to pick it back up a week or two ago to finish it off and I have no idea how to play that game now. They need to put some kind of refresher-training area things in those games to get you back up to speed if that happens. I finished Spidy a couple years back but didn't do the DLC, and I was going to do that last year, but nope I have absolutely no clue how to play that thing now. I'll have to start over one day I guess.

So yeah, bring back 10-15 hour games and stop trying to charge $70 for the things, I'm cool with all that.

[isthatallyougot]

Yeah phase, sorry about your health issues. I hope you're able to get some relief and improvement.

And as everyone else has said, we've all been less than our best selves for sure. Let forgiveness rule your heart - both for others and yourself.

I haven't been playing anything. I just haven't been feeling it. My life's got a lot of energy flowing in other directions, and I'm riding that wave.

[Phaseknox]

Phase, I hope things start getting better with your health. Hang in there!

Yeah phase, sorry about your health issues. I hope you're able to get some relief and improvement.

Thanks.

I've been messing with Genshin Impact a little.

What are your thoughts on it so far? I might check it out today if I'm feeling up to it, it's free to play after all.

So yeah, Phase, we all said stupid things back on the IGN boards. Heck, I've said stupid things here I'm sure. FWIW, I'm glad you stuck around as even tho we've had our disagreements in the past I really value your opinion & input on things.

Ditto.

Alright, who's choppin' onions in here???

I have games in my backlog now - heck, Persona 5 Royal is one of them - that I'd like to play, but every time I look at them I see that LOOOONG playtime and just can't make myself commit to it.

Same here. Every time that I look at my library of games to play it's hard for me to choose something because I know that almost no matter what I choose will be a big time sink that I will have to commit to.

bring back 10-15 hour games and stop trying to charge $70 for the things, I'm cool with all that.

I'm cool with 10-15 hour games depending on the games, although I admit that I like action adventure games and RPGs to be a bit longer. However, I don't need them to be 100+ hours - that's going a little overboard IMO.

[argyle]

I've been messing with Genshin Impact a little.

What are your thoughts on it so far? I might check it out today if I'm feeling up to it, it's free to play after all.

Honestly, I'm loving it so far. The game is insanely well made for a F2P - not that I play a ton of those, but from what I've seen of others this one definitely stands out. Everything I've read / watched says that the "gacha" stuff is 100% not necessary to finish / enjoy the game, and from what I've played so far that appears to be true. Basically there are a TON of characters in the game, so if you really want a specific character then you could end up dropping a lot of cash trying to get them - but for those of us who don't really care about getting a certain character it gives you enough characters for free to play & enjoy the game, and supposedly you can even grind out the currency by playing to buy the loot boxes. I'm with you in that I'd feel better if it was a game I bought straight up, but at the same time this may really be the better option, I'm just very cautious of F2P in general. That said, I DID drop a few hundred hours into Warframe and the only cash I spent on that I spent to support the devs because the game was so good, so a truly fair & fun F2P game isn't unheard of.

bring back 10-15 hour games and stop trying to charge $70 for the things, I'm cool with all that.

I'm cool with 10-15 hour games depending on the games, although I admit that I like action adventure games and RPGs to be a bit longer. However, I don't need them to be 100+ hours - that's going a little overboard IMO.

Yeah, I'm not saying that EVERY game needs to be 10-15 hours, but I'm with Crim in that I'm sick of devs padding games that SHOULD be 10-15 hours because that looks bad in a review, so they bloat them to 30-40 hours. The game should be the length that it calls for, no more & no less. I think the Skyrim approach is probably best for RPGs anyway - make the main storyline relatively short, put in a ton of quality side-content that's as good as the main story and make it so that you can do that content at any time - before, during or after the main story. Then the game becomes as long as you want it to be.

[canedaddy]

Very sorry to hear about your health problems, Phase. That sucks. I'll keep you in my prayers.

As for IGN messages, I'm pretty sure I was awesome there. (I had hoped those were dead and buried... apparently not! )


Played recently: Ghost of Tsushima

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 36 (15 PS4, 9 Vita, 7 3DS/2DS, 5 PS2)

I set aside DQ Builders 2 for now so I can jump into Ghost. This isn't surprising, given how much I've enjoyed everything Sucker Punch has done, but I love it. Such a beautiful and fun game.

[Phaseknox]

Honestly, I'm loving it so far. The game is insanely well made for a F2P - not that I play a ton of those, but from what I've seen of others this one definitely stands out.

Thanks for the impressions. I definitely plan on playing it when I'm in the mood for a big open world action RPG.

Yeah, I'm not saying that EVERY game needs to be 10-15 hours, but I'm with Crim in that I'm sick of devs padding games that SHOULD be 10-15 hours because that looks bad in a review, so they bloat them to 30-40 hours. The game should be the length that it calls for, no more & no less. I think the Skyrim approach is probably best for RPGs anyway - make the main storyline relatively short, put in a ton of quality side-content that's as good as the main story and make it so that you can do that content at any time - before, during or after the main story. Then the game becomes as long as you want it to be.

I agree.

Very sorry to hear about your health problems, Phase. That sucks. I'll keep you in my prayers.

Thanks.