🚀 go-pugleaf

>What have you been playing in April (check) of 2017 (check)?

    Homefront: Revolution
Homefront Revolution This game got a really bad rap, that is not in any way 
deserved. The graphics and artstyle are topnotch, the combat mechanics, 
weapon mods, and parkour movements highly enjoyable, the missions get better 
and better as the story progresses, and the environmental scenery gradually 
changes as you 'free' sections of town in a way reminiscent of The Saboteur. 
The plot, with it's racist and nationalist undertones, should be embraced by 
the player, not rejected: Just retain a meta-view and self-awareness that 
Spec Ops: The Line attempted to instill. Just look at the current situation, 
with both Kim and Whatshisname in the WH on both sides threatening and 
posturing, both using the publicity as a distraction.

    Life is Strange
Now that I've finished and uninstalled LiS, I'm less impressed than while 
playing.  EP5 in particular had 'avoid the monstar' & timed sequences that I 
found quite annoying, and when combined with the highly telegraphed ending, 
just had me wanting it to be over.  If you haven't played this yet, EP1 is 
free or nearly free, but basically it's an over-the-shoulder camera, fairly 
linear 3D adventure game.  The mechanic of time-rewinding provides the one 
unique gameplay hook, and does encourage some involvement in the 
gameworld -- thinking about events in the world, how their sequence could be 
altered, and allowing you to craft somewhat how you wish to be perceived by 
other characters (and of course, yourself, in a typical game design feedback 
loop).

But the real draw is the writing, art style, and quality voice-acting, or 
world-building.  The voice of the main character (and the others as well) is 
just so well-knitted to her onscreen avatar, and is very effective in 
drawing you in to the teen drama and murder mystery of the plot.  It's well 
worth experiencing LiS just for these qualities.  Be sure to watch the 
alternate ending, as it provides a good WTF laugh; watching it, I felt like 
Trump jetting off to mar-a-lago, past the shambles of a country, mouthing 
see-ya-suckas.

    Syberia 3
Here's my impression after 90min of play (I haven't yet left the clinic, 
just went up the elevator to ask permission). Basically, it's positive. I 
like the puzzles so far a lot: They've involved simple manipulation and 
examination of objects. Physically doing this with an xbox360 controller 
took a small amount of experimentation (after a glance at the menu's control 
diagram), as often selecting a hotspot in a scene will reveal a number of 
other hotspots – identified by small white circles, which take a few 
repetitions to spot quickly – that then have to be panned over to be 
selected. As the very negative pcgamer review admitted, there's a 
satisfaction in this virtual manipulation, such as turning a screw by 
circling a joystick.

It looks good, or I guess I'd say good enough. Areas have been small with 
few hotspots or scenery to wonder at, but Kate herself and her animations, 
as well as the faces of people she talks to, are detailed and quite lovely.

As to the 'bad', the lip movements and glimpses of tongues flopping around 
in mouths during speech are poorly done, and the english voice-acting is 
perfunctory. I'm not going to fixate on these, as they are not deal-breakers 
for me. Playing post-patch 1.1, which came out a couple days ago, I haven't 
seen any performance issues to speak of on my all-AMD system, though nvidia 
users are reporting problems still. Being rapid-fire pestered to make 
dialogue choices is a bit annoying too, hopefully that's patched soon.

I do get a sense of a lower budget production, as there was little effort 
put into an introductory segue from the earlier titles (I think I'll go back 
and try to view the cutscenes from the earlier games, which were of 
excellent quality) but I'm still getting the old Syberia vibe of gentle 
fantasy and expectation of wonder, and am looking forward to continuing this 
game!  BTW I just read the RockPaperShotgun sneering 'review' and it made me 
sneer in response. Trashing titles is practically a cottage industry, and 
all indications are the reviewer has played less than I have and never left 
the starting clinic level.  Regardless, I'd say this is not an A title, but 
a solid B title; the highs are subdued, and the story feels somewhat rushed, 
like they ran out of production money to make it flow better, but I haven't 
hit lows that make me feel playing it is a waste of time.

rms