Leaving Lyndow
I'm already actively trying to play through Metroid: Zero Mission, with doses of Pullblox on the side; I started Indiana Jones and the Great Circle anyway because now it's on the free-with-Prime tier of Amazon's Luna and I'd been so excited to play it*; also thanks to Luna's recent refresh, there's now a bunch of other games available to me that I've really wanted to play and/or have heard are great, like Dave the Diver, Hogwarts Legacy, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Dishonored 2; I should definitely go back to Forza Horizon 4, Pilotwings Resort, Doom, and Balatro; I recently bought Dispatch at full price** on release day because I'd been looking forward to it and initial reactions suggest it's as good as hoped, so I definitely want to find time for that; a point-and-click adventure I've been very excited for ever since I backed it on Kickstarter three years ago*** is finally out tomorrow, and I wanted to finish Gray Matter before then so I could dive straight in (obviously not going to happen now); and I actually drafted this post to highlight the ridiculousness of the fact I decided to have a crack at Skyrim for the first time ever — a game with an average minimum completion time of almost 30 hours, but for which the median playtime is over 100...
But, instead, I bought Leaving Lyndow for 67p this evening and immediately played that. Huh?
Okay, a bit more context. I was recently looking into open world games, because for whatever reason I've had a hankering to play one (hence Skyrim), and learnt about a game called Eastshade that sounded like it might be perfect: you play an artist, there's no combat, you just explore and complete side quests and stuff like that; and it's supposed to be beautiful. Sounds right up my street! So I wishlisted it; then, yesterday, it went on sale on Steam, so I instantly bought it. I was also aware it had a prequel, Leaving Lyndow. Various games seem to have "prequels" or "prologues" nowadays, and from what I can tell they're just a glorified demo — the opening chunk of the game, available for free. I'm sure there's some algorithm-related reason why it's better to list them that way. Anyway, I ignored Lyndow on the assumption it was the same, but then something today (I've already forgotten what) led me to discover it was actually a separate-but-connected game. Well, that settled it: I had to play that first, really. Well, maybe I didn't have to, but when it's only 67p in the same sale and reportedly takes about 45 minutes, it seemed rude not to.
It actually took me an hour, because I'm me and so explored quite thoroughly. It's definitely a gentle and relaxing game, as advertised, but also with a bit of an emotional storyline about a young person leaving home for the first time. It's not long enough to really get into that and thus it doesn't hit home as much as a fully-developed narrative could, but it's serviceable.
It also looks fairly beautiful. It's made for wandering around and appreciating what you see, so it needs to look pleasant, really. There were a few bugs (a character fully clipped through a tree at one point), and it's got that thing where it looks amazing in screenshots / when you're stood still, but when you start moving around all the ways those things are achieved immediately become obvious — but then, in my (limited) experience, this is still a thing with most games. And, in fairness, it's also almost nine years old and was made by indie developers; so while it does lack graphical polish in minor areas that I suspect would lead graphics-obsessed AAA-game players to think it looked rubbish, to me — who's been out of this kind of gaming for a very long time and hasn't exactly dived in to the current high-end of graphical amazingness (yet) — it still looked pretty special. Eastshade proper was released two years later, so I hold out hope it had even greater polish, but even if it's at the same level, it has the potential to live up to its reputation for beauty.
* I nearly subscribed to Xbox Game Pass just to play this, so getting to have a go at it on a service I'm already subscribed to is awesome. (I say "have a go" because, knowing Luna, it'll get locked away behind Premium long before I get a chance to finish it (see: Dungeons of Hinterberg and Control).
** Well, I did get the 10% first-week discount; but that was the "full price" at the time, so…
*** It does not feel like it's been three whole years. Wow. That's ages to have been waiting. I mean, it's not uncommon for Kickstarters to end up taking a stupidly long time to fulfil — when I back them, I always take a "it will be here when it's here" attitude, because expecting them on time and sitting waiting for that is a recipe for madness — but I never would've guessed it had been so long.
Showing posts sorted by date for query Forza Horizon 4. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Forza Horizon 4. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 November 2025
Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Games
Forza Horizon 4
Today, worked out how to patch my copy to update it to the final version of the game — went so well, I then tried to install a crack to let me play it online — but that wiped my save data, although after some thinking and fiddling I managed to get it back... which apparently disabled the online stuff again. Not exactly a successful day, then. I did consider just starting over — most of my "achievements" are the auto-unlocked free DLC anyway — but, really, the only reason I want to get online is try some of the online-only features, which I'm not sure I'll particularly enjoy anyway, so... Well, now I know how to back up / swap out save files, maybe I'll try again at some point.
Today, worked out how to patch my copy to update it to the final version of the game — went so well, I then tried to install a crack to let me play it online — but that wiped my save data, although after some thinking and fiddling I managed to get it back... which apparently disabled the online stuff again. Not exactly a successful day, then. I did consider just starting over — most of my "achievements" are the auto-unlocked free DLC anyway — but, really, the only reason I want to get online is try some of the online-only features, which I'm not sure I'll particularly enjoy anyway, so... Well, now I know how to back up / swap out save files, maybe I'll try again at some point.
Monday, 29 September 2025
Games
Forza Horizon 4
Nearly three hours in this again today! That's slightly inaccurate, in the sense that I wasted a bunch of time trying to fiddle with settings — for reasons I can't ascertain, in handheld (i.e. regular) mode it will crash after about five minutes, max; but when docked to my TV, it runs perfectly for hours, in Full HD with high graphics. Even reducing those settings, it will still crash handheld. I don't know enough to work out why that would be, but it's frustrating. I mean, I'm happy enough playing on my TV, but sometimes it's nice to have a little play in bed or whatever. (*ahem*)
But I did also spend a lot of time actually playing, because there's so much to see and do! Today I decided to head into the LEGO Speed Champions area… and it's basically a whole extra game! I was expecting a couple of sights to see, a few LEGO cars to unlock, but no, there's tonnes of content, on a map that feels almost as big as the main game. I expect it isn't, but that's more because of how huge the main game's is rather than any fault of the LEGO area. (Google says it's actually ¼ of the size. Like I said, the main one is just huge.)
And there's a whole other DLC expansion I haven't visited yet. Assuming it's anything like the LEGO one, I might just leave it a while.
Nearly three hours in this again today! That's slightly inaccurate, in the sense that I wasted a bunch of time trying to fiddle with settings — for reasons I can't ascertain, in handheld (i.e. regular) mode it will crash after about five minutes, max; but when docked to my TV, it runs perfectly for hours, in Full HD with high graphics. Even reducing those settings, it will still crash handheld. I don't know enough to work out why that would be, but it's frustrating. I mean, I'm happy enough playing on my TV, but sometimes it's nice to have a little play in bed or whatever. (*ahem*)
But I did also spend a lot of time actually playing, because there's so much to see and do! Today I decided to head into the LEGO Speed Champions area… and it's basically a whole extra game! I was expecting a couple of sights to see, a few LEGO cars to unlock, but no, there's tonnes of content, on a map that feels almost as big as the main game. I expect it isn't, but that's more because of how huge the main game's is rather than any fault of the LEGO area. (Google says it's actually ¼ of the size. Like I said, the main one is just huge.)
And there's a whole other DLC expansion I haven't visited yet. Assuming it's anything like the LEGO one, I might just leave it a while.
Sunday, 28 September 2025
Games
Forza Horizon 4
Popped in to change a setting and decided to take a drive up to Edinburgh — doesn't take long (the open world map is big, 52 square miles, but far from life-size), but then I ended up just driving about and such things (I did all of one race), and suddenly it was over an hour-and-a-half later. I'm sure that will get boring eventually... but I went back to the game later and spent another couple of hours in it, so not yet!
And then something weird happened. I reached the point where you unlock more stuff — like so many games nowadays (it seems to me, from what I've heard/experienced), it leads you carefully for a little bit, then decides you've learnt the basics and so opens up more. Except because of, um, how I acquired the game, it comes with everything that was available to unlock, all DLC content, etc. And so rather than just a little more progress, I was flooded with stuff. I don't think everything is unlocked — it looks like completing races, earning points, etc, will make still more stuff accessible — but whereas before it offered a couple of options to choose between for what to do next, and stacking up points eventually unlocked the next level and season, all of a sudden I was Level 17 (I think I was Level 2 or 3 before), and the map was covered in options, and notifications kept flashing up with stuff I'd unlocked, and I had enough points to basically jump to the next season every time something in the game might trigger that. And the game crashed several times, I think overburdened with everything it was having to process! (It eventually settled down and seemed to run fine again, thank goodness.)
That explosion of content and progess was... kind of exciting, I guess; but it also felt like I was being rushed past the 'training wheels' phase, and I kind of liked that gradual progression and uncovering stuff. For example, once you've completed the 'training' part — which introduces mechanices and options, but also progresses you through a full cycle of seasons over a couple of hours of playtime (according to reviews) — the game changes season every week. So rather than linearly moving on whenever you complete/earn progress (and you can rack up points by just driving around as much or little as you want, so you'd have some control), if the week you're in is Spring and you want to see something in Winter, you've got to wait up to four weeks for it to cycle through. It's a neat concept, but potentially frustating. And in terms of unlocked races and whatnot, I'm sure everything remains revisitable, so I haven't literally missed it; but, for example, I did one event in Autumn and was pushed straight to Winter, then did one thing in Winter and it was straight to Spring. I don't think it's meant to work like that! I think you're meant to, sort of, be guided along a bit more gradually, then eventually set loose.
Ah well, it is what it is. At least having access to so much stuff is, as I said, kinda exciting, and I can pick and choose whatever I want to do from a vast array of possibilities. And there is a lot to work through!
Popped in to change a setting and decided to take a drive up to Edinburgh — doesn't take long (the open world map is big, 52 square miles, but far from life-size), but then I ended up just driving about and such things (I did all of one race), and suddenly it was over an hour-and-a-half later. I'm sure that will get boring eventually... but I went back to the game later and spent another couple of hours in it, so not yet!
And then something weird happened. I reached the point where you unlock more stuff — like so many games nowadays (it seems to me, from what I've heard/experienced), it leads you carefully for a little bit, then decides you've learnt the basics and so opens up more. Except because of, um, how I acquired the game, it comes with everything that was available to unlock, all DLC content, etc. And so rather than just a little more progress, I was flooded with stuff. I don't think everything is unlocked — it looks like completing races, earning points, etc, will make still more stuff accessible — but whereas before it offered a couple of options to choose between for what to do next, and stacking up points eventually unlocked the next level and season, all of a sudden I was Level 17 (I think I was Level 2 or 3 before), and the map was covered in options, and notifications kept flashing up with stuff I'd unlocked, and I had enough points to basically jump to the next season every time something in the game might trigger that. And the game crashed several times, I think overburdened with everything it was having to process! (It eventually settled down and seemed to run fine again, thank goodness.)
That explosion of content and progess was... kind of exciting, I guess; but it also felt like I was being rushed past the 'training wheels' phase, and I kind of liked that gradual progression and uncovering stuff. For example, once you've completed the 'training' part — which introduces mechanices and options, but also progresses you through a full cycle of seasons over a couple of hours of playtime (according to reviews) — the game changes season every week. So rather than linearly moving on whenever you complete/earn progress (and you can rack up points by just driving around as much or little as you want, so you'd have some control), if the week you're in is Spring and you want to see something in Winter, you've got to wait up to four weeks for it to cycle through. It's a neat concept, but potentially frustating. And in terms of unlocked races and whatnot, I'm sure everything remains revisitable, so I haven't literally missed it; but, for example, I did one event in Autumn and was pushed straight to Winter, then did one thing in Winter and it was straight to Spring. I don't think it's meant to work like that! I think you're meant to, sort of, be guided along a bit more gradually, then eventually set loose.
Ah well, it is what it is. At least having access to so much stuff is, as I said, kinda exciting, and I can pick and choose whatever I want to do from a vast array of possibilities. And there is a lot to work through!
Saturday, 27 September 2025
Games
Doom
Doom is the 11th greatest PC game of all time and 2nd greatest retro game of all time. I'm sure I played it Back In The Day, but never thoroughly. Nowadays, you can get it dirt cheap along with its sequel, plus a bunch of mods and stuff, with some updated graphics and whatnot (not a total overhaul, but it's in widescreen, for example), so I thought I should give it a go... on the lowest difficulty, natch. And on my Steam Deck, which normally isn't ideal for FPS games (controllers are so hard to aim with), but as you don't have to look up and down in Doom, it's considerably easier. Also, like I said, lowest difficulty.
I would say I breezed through it, and I did in the sense that I didn't die until the boss fight at the end (it took me a couple of goes to realise I could run anywhere — clearly "red floor = lava = death" wasn't a game design concept back in 1993), but my times were atrocious: it took me 79 minutes to play the first episode, Knee-Deep in the Dead, while the combined par times (given at the end of each level) total under 18 minutes! I presume they're a target to aim for rather than a "what you manage on your first go, while blundering around getting very lost on some maps and having to backtrack a lot", which is certainly what happened to me. Oh well, I mostly had fun shooting stuff and not dying (lowest difficulty, remember). Said episode contained nine levels, while the combined DOOM + DOOM II I referred to reports to have 187 missions all-in. That's the potential for plenty of value from the less-than-£3 it cost me.
Forza Horizon 4
On the other hand, I can't really remember what piqued my initial interest in this. A chain of events got me to download it today, though: somewhere I stumbled across the news that Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Japan, which made me curious where previous games were set, and (long story short) I discovered 4 was set in the UK but is no longer available to buy (it was discontinued at the end of last year due to licences expiring). The UK setting and my background interest was enough that I probably would've bought it, but as I couldn't I learnt something new about my Steam Deck: how to get games on there from, uh, questionable sources. It's amazing how much that world has come on in recent years, but I won't extrapolate too much.
Anyway, I'm glad I did because it's actually a tonne of fun! Being an open world game, you can just drive around roads — which might sound dull because, y'know, I could go outside and do that for real; but not at these speeds, in these cars, on a condensed map that packs in various different parts of the UK. It's fun! And then there are races and story mode bits and stuff to progress. Me being me, I turned the difficulty right down, to the point where actually it was just silly so I turned it back up a bit. Fun times. It looks great on the Deck too, running in full HD to my TV and only experiencing issues on loading animations (which, as you're not playing at that point, I can totally live with).
I can see myself sinking hours into this, possibly.
Doom is the 11th greatest PC game of all time and 2nd greatest retro game of all time. I'm sure I played it Back In The Day, but never thoroughly. Nowadays, you can get it dirt cheap along with its sequel, plus a bunch of mods and stuff, with some updated graphics and whatnot (not a total overhaul, but it's in widescreen, for example), so I thought I should give it a go... on the lowest difficulty, natch. And on my Steam Deck, which normally isn't ideal for FPS games (controllers are so hard to aim with), but as you don't have to look up and down in Doom, it's considerably easier. Also, like I said, lowest difficulty.
I would say I breezed through it, and I did in the sense that I didn't die until the boss fight at the end (it took me a couple of goes to realise I could run anywhere — clearly "red floor = lava = death" wasn't a game design concept back in 1993), but my times were atrocious: it took me 79 minutes to play the first episode, Knee-Deep in the Dead, while the combined par times (given at the end of each level) total under 18 minutes! I presume they're a target to aim for rather than a "what you manage on your first go, while blundering around getting very lost on some maps and having to backtrack a lot", which is certainly what happened to me. Oh well, I mostly had fun shooting stuff and not dying (lowest difficulty, remember). Said episode contained nine levels, while the combined DOOM + DOOM II I referred to reports to have 187 missions all-in. That's the potential for plenty of value from the less-than-£3 it cost me.
Forza Horizon 4
On the other hand, I can't really remember what piqued my initial interest in this. A chain of events got me to download it today, though: somewhere I stumbled across the news that Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Japan, which made me curious where previous games were set, and (long story short) I discovered 4 was set in the UK but is no longer available to buy (it was discontinued at the end of last year due to licences expiring). The UK setting and my background interest was enough that I probably would've bought it, but as I couldn't I learnt something new about my Steam Deck: how to get games on there from, uh, questionable sources. It's amazing how much that world has come on in recent years, but I won't extrapolate too much.
Anyway, I'm glad I did because it's actually a tonne of fun! Being an open world game, you can just drive around roads — which might sound dull because, y'know, I could go outside and do that for real; but not at these speeds, in these cars, on a condensed map that packs in various different parts of the UK. It's fun! And then there are races and story mode bits and stuff to progress. Me being me, I turned the difficulty right down, to the point where actually it was just silly so I turned it back up a bit. Fun times. It looks great on the Deck too, running in full HD to my TV and only experiencing issues on loading animations (which, as you're not playing at that point, I can totally live with).
I can see myself sinking hours into this, possibly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)