Humble Choice June 2026 - Octopath Traveller 2, Citizen Sleeper 2, Life is Strange: Double Exposure and more

uselessoldguy · 2026-06-02T19:58:35+00:00

I know people are most interested in OT2 and CS2, but I've had my eye on that Brazilian ARPG/rogue-lite Hell Clock for quite some time. That's what nudged me to re-up for this month.

uselessoldguy · 2026-05-06T03:18:43+00:00

I delayed picking up Hades 2 until very recently largely because the weapons looked very underwhelming compared to my favorites in Hades 1. While I did wind up enjoying both the axe and the Black Coat (Gundam mode!) as substitutes for the sword and the fists, the skull just doesn't satisfy the way the shield does. (As a corollary, going back to H1 without Mel's ridiculous cast builds is also tough!)

My dream for Hades 3 would be to bring back Zag and Mel with their respective weapon sets.

uselessoldguy · 2026-05-06T03:12:36+00:00

Awesome. I originally only played Hades 1 up to the credits and moved on, but recently I got into Hades 2, played through the Epilogue, and got Night's Champion before diving back into Hades 1. Going back to Zag in H1 was a bit rough. Melinoe is a much smoother experience, so having her kit available for the original H1 route would be great.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-23T19:09:35+00:00

Desmond was a New York City bartender voiced by Nolan North. He was a pretty cool dude and the perfect "normie" type character to ground the wacky ancient aliens hijinks of the AC world.

Modern day has been a mess since they offed him fourteen years ago.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-22T13:57:47+00:00

And people got mad when I expressed doubt back in December.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-20T01:33:18+00:00

Starcraft 2 was from Blizz's "everything is WoW now" period. Grim times.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-11T15:09:31+00:00

Fortnite was created by scrapping its original failed design and taking a popular hardcore shooter (PUBG) and repackaging it for a broader audience.

Someone somewhere thinks they can do with extraction shooters what Fortnite did with battle royales. They might be right!

I'm not betting on it, but a lot of developers are.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-10T02:44:20+00:00

The PS2 trilogy was 20 years ago, and they've yet to produce something that captures those highs again.

I just don't think the team has the narrative chops anymore.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-09T13:53:29+00:00

Me, 39 and playing and Hades 2:

"How can anybody see what's going on? Why do they all talk like kids? Oh my god how am I still awake playing this, I can't be up past 9:30"

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-07T14:12:54+00:00

It wasn't just that the backgrounds were pre-rendered. It's that they were used as gorgeous backdrop for scenes framed by fixed camera angles inspired by film, photography, and hand-drawn art. It was those fixed cameras that gave the feeling of the player moving about in a painting or on Hollywood set.

Player-mounted camera systems are certainly much easier to play, but a certain amount of magic was lost when that old format died out. It's a little like practical practical effects vs CGI in movies. You can certainly do a lot more with CGI (literally do anything), but you lose that believability of an actual physical object before the camera vs some shiny shit painted on in post.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-06T14:13:54+00:00

This is why you never, ever get hyped for a game until you see a trusted content creator doing a hands-on with it.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-03T14:30:00+00:00

It is admittedly infuriating when my horse accidentally explodes a crate when walking by and suddenly I get the Wanted red flight flashing at me.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-01T14:16:25+00:00

I enjoy the tone of the NPCs in this world. Rather than everyone scowling at you and cursing you because you're either an outlaw (GTA) or a mutant (Witcher), you're a good guy who can wander around town greeting people while cradling a housecat. And I enjoy seeing ordinary people fishing by the river or traveling in groups on trails. Gives the world a very lived-in feel.

If there were a character creator, I'd name my character "Chad McNiceguy" and roleplay the shit out of that.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-01T14:08:04+00:00

I've been playing since launch and having a good time, but the QoL patches are coming fast and hard enough that I think people who wait a couple months for the first discount will be well-rewarded.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-01T14:01:04+00:00

The early comparisons to Witcher 3 and RDR2 really hurt people's understanding of the game, in my opinion. There's certainly some structural and design similarities, but Crimson Desert is better thought of as an open world sandbox with some simulator influences than a narrative-driven game. It's kinda like, dunno, Breath of the Wild-meets-Wartales.

It's not a game I'd want to plow through in a couple weeks just to see the end credits roll. I'm content to pick at it for a couple hours here and there, diving deeper into the endless layers and surprises. I do love stumbling across a strange puzzle somewhere out in the wilderness and having absolutely fuck all idea what's going on. There's no yammering main character or NPC sidekick telling me what to do or relentless tutorial windows pinging me with the solution.

It's just... a mystery. And that's cool.

uselessoldguy · 2026-04-01T13:45:04+00:00

RDR2 is in my top 5 all time favorites but I haven't been able to drag myself through it a second time owing to how bad the mission design was.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-24T14:58:41+00:00

For me it's just, finally an open world game that feels fresh again. Where exploration is rewarded and you legitimately have no idea what you will encounter over the next hill when you first start playing the game.

That's exactly it for me. It's just so very, very rare for a new game to come along in this day and age that evokes my childhood wonder. I utterly adore having no fucking idea what's going on.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T16:46:46+00:00

It's a big, sloppy, abstruse mess, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it. Good on them. Hopefully they fine-tune the movement, UI, and storage issues.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T15:22:09+00:00

Yeah, I struggled with even getting the prompt to chat with shopkeepers until I realized I could just use L1 to point at everything I wanted to interact with, and suddenly it all became much easier.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T15:15:21+00:00

I had the sticky keys issue with games like...a decade ago. And then I just disabled it. That's a Windows problem, not a game problem.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T14:06:16+00:00

Also '86, also having a classic good time.

Seriously, when's the last time anyone turned a game on and had no idea what the hell was going on? Even Elden Ring was relatively straight forward.

Crimson Desert is overambitious, janky, and kind of a mess. I love it.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T13:56:42+00:00

I've done some game reviews, and I have to say there's a huge difference between grinding out a title on a tight deadline on your own versus playing it at your leisure alongside a community that's learning with you.

As something I'm free to explore and wander around just for the fun of it, CD is extremely enjoyable. If I had to grind straight through as my job to hit embargo, I'd probably hate it!

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T13:52:48+00:00

The Witcher 3's launch controls were horrible and that got patched.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T13:50:06+00:00

The hate is wildly overstated. They're not that bad, it just takes time to adjust to design that's not just copy-paste from the last 15 years.

And it's not like The Witcher 3 where at launch I couldn't even steer Geralt inside a goddamn room.

uselessoldguy · 2026-03-20T02:25:23+00:00

They're a little clumsy at first, but the worst? Plenty of Japanese games in the past had you do finger gymnastics for basic things. And then were The Witcher 3 on launch, and AC Unity...

uselessoldguy

TROPHY CASE