@LtSarge have you been going back to the previous levels to check for the missed collectibles? I have also finished that part yesterday evening and moved a bit ahead and I am at the 10h mark (and I assumed I was very near the end by now storywise)
Game Pass:
The Evil Within - 4 (sarge, antifyre, krzystf, mndny,
Alien Isolation
Dead Space - 2 (dmc, krzystf
Doom 3 - 1 (dmc,
GwG:
Maid of Sker
Little Nightmares
The Raven Remastered
Call of Cthulhu
Styx: Shards of Darkness - 1 (mightyant,
Paid/Game Pass:
Outlast games - 3 (sarge, antifyre, mightyant
That's where the votes currently stand. I might encourage other people to lock in their votes within the next few days. Just in case Outlast does come out on top so people have a chance to buy it while it's on sale.
Apologies if you've already voted but here is the tag list again
I just checked Outlast on the MS store and it's £2.99 for another 6 days. I'll ask that you get your votes in by around 6PM UK time this Sunday 5th September. We will lock in the game then. If it ends up being The Evil Within or another game then grand, nothing needs doing. But if it ends up being Outlast and it's DLC/sequel, then you will have an extra day from then to buy it from the MS store at its discounted price 👍
@Balta666 I did that at first but then I realised that most levels have collectibles locked behind multiple PSI powers that I don't have yet so I thought it'd be for the best to just go through the story and then get all the collectibles at the end when I have unlocked all the powers.
@LtSarge yeah, I normally do mine at the end and to be honest, my votes wouldn't make a difference at the moment, it'd just add +1 to most of the games as I don't have a huge preference and they are all available to me to at least try out
Just came back from a week of camping this weekend but I got into Pshyconauts 1 again last night for a good while and i finished the asylum Napoleon and Matador levels. Both were really great and the Matador really stood out with the colour palette used. Not sure how much more i have left of the game but i should be starting Pshyconauts 2 shortly.
@ralphdibny camping was great. Good to unwind. It's tiering still with the little ones but it's a good tiring. It messes with my weekly quests but i managed to get everything done when I got back to get my 2,500 point bonus for week 40. One of these days I'm going to miss out and have to start from scratch but not yet!
@Krzzystuff "It messes with my weekly quests" I feel called out
Just came back from a short holiday: thought I had remote play sorted to keep the weekly quests run of 80 weeks going while away. Sadly it stopped working and lost the run.
Ultimately though I think it was healthier to let go and realise it's not that important in the whole scheme of things. It's too easy to become fixated on these things and better to put them back into context.
I'm a fan of horror games, so I've already played most of those games.
I didn't like Outlast, to be honest. It's a very scripted game and I got stuck at a point because I couldn't figure out exactly what the game was expecting me to do, so I kept dying over and over again in the same encounter. That left a sour taste in my mouth...
I cannot vote against Dead Space, since that's one of my favorite games ever. I've replayed it multiple times and I have 1000 G in it. Probably I will replay it once more just before the remake releases.
The Evil Within is a nice game, it's gameplay loop kind of reminds me of Dead Space, and you should take it as huge compliment from me. But I'd rather give the sequel a try than replay the first one.
@Krzzystuff ahh that's really good to hear. I love that satisfying fatigue at the end of a fulfilling occasion. Better than the fatigue you just get from the thought of having to do something unpalatable!
Is it just certain punchcards you don't get in Canada then? I was a bit confused cos of your comment on that article but I reread it. You get the Xbox Rewards App, the bing/edge app rewards, just not the Monthly bonus punchcard? I think the US points are more generous than ours over here in the UK, sucks that they don't spread that out up to Canada too
@themightyant I think that's a good way to look at it. I kind of get obsessed with these kinds of things. I did calculate it once though and I don't think losing a streak actually results in too many points lost. It works out at nearly 2,500 with the shorter increments leading up to that first ten weeks anyway. I guess you lose quite a few just from doing the cards themselves but the streak itself isn't a huge loss. I lost my daily streak recently because I was so tired after work that I forgot to do it. I wasn't that fussed really
@ralphdibny Yes 100% it's far too easy to become obsessed over these things. Like many games these website and services are intentionally designed that way after all! But at the end of the day it was only about £2. Far better to break free and enjoy some sun, sea and sky over obsessing over a MS rewards streak.
I should know better: I deal with this in my job with the gamification of websites and how to keep users engaged. Sadly still fall for it hook line and sinker despite being well aware of it all! [facepalm]
Tangentially Mike Bithell (Thomas was Alone dev) briefly talked about how game developers try to manipulate us to keep us engaged on the Play, Watch, Listen podcasts.
@ralphdibny yeah the monthly 2K punchcard isn't available in Canada and some of the 500 point ones for getting an achievement in certain games didn't show up for me either.
@themightyant oh really? That's very interesting! I'm quite interested to know what company you work for but I'm almost certain you won't be able to tell me! 😅 I had a colleague that did something somewhat similar with advertising on websites in his previous job. The amount of data they can collect is insane, like how much time is spent with the ad on screen and whether it's partially or fully visible etc.
I definitely am not a fan of that sort of thing in general. While my position toward it is negative, I do recognise that there is a trade off which I have to accept if I want to use certain products. Like if I want to use an android phone, then I have to allow Google to collect a certain amount of data about me.
But yeah in terms of just the manipulation and general gamification of well, games. I'm not a fan of that either! I've been addicted to two mobile games called The Simpsons Tapped Out and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. I kicked both habits after about a year a piece when both games made it impossible to get items in game without paying. I.e. you couldn't get them through pure gameplay. Quitting both games felt like such a huge relief, like a big weight off my shoulders as I was literally planning my day around playing them. I'm sure you know how they work with the cool down timers and such. You can fit in like 5 plays in your waking hours.
I am wary of and won't go near any mobile games like that now after losing a year of my life to each game. I'm surprised I even went to Animal Crossing after quitting The Simpsons but I think it was because it was when AC had just released so they hadn't put in mechanics that required heavy time investment and also loot boxes yet.
In terms of actual full price games that had those mechanics, I tend to steer clear after I had a 9 month bout with Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled. It really is an amazing game but keeping up with the monthly events was so harsh on my physical and mental well being. I'm glad that came to an end.
I think I must be the worse sort of customer for this MS Rewards thing to be honest. I never read the answers to the polls or quizzes. I just press whatever so I don't know what amount of quality data they are actually able to collect on me and any links that are supposed to be adverts are only clicked on for a split second before I go back a page. Only very occasionally will I buy stuff in the store for the punchcards and it's normally if I want something anyway and I think I'll buy a few other things that I could probably wait to buy, but I just get them to round it up to £35 or whatever it is. But I'd buy the games later down the line anyway and the discounts won't be much different so I think the only thing I could be helping is MS' immediate cashflow. And also, I only ever use Edge or Bing for the rewards. I use Chrome for browsing on my phone (I just gave up on privacy seeing as I'm sure the Google AI can see everything I do anyway) and I use Mozilla Firefox with the duck duck go plug in on the computer.
But yeah, saving for a Series X with MS points reminds me of how I got my PS3. I got that through something that coca cola did called CokeZone. It was while I was at uni and I was drinking litres of Diet Coke every day anyway so I thought I'd cash in my points. A couple years later, I had a PS3 delivered to my doorstep! (And now I drink Pepsi Max 😂)
So psychonauts 2 keeps on giving. I yesterday though I was missing a couple of hours at best but I passed that mark and still going (but I am about to fight the final boss soon I am sure). One thing is certain I never felt the ideas got worse or less developed. Tomorrow I roll credits and let's see if I stick for completion (not sure I will grind to max level and money to buy all badges, etc)
@ralphdibny Nice work getting a PS3 through Coke! I remember trading in a LOT of games and old controllers at CEX for my PS3 shortly after Uncharted came out, it almost felt 'free' not paying a penny
You're 100% right on the addictive mechanics and best to steer well clear if you have that sort of personality. I'm currently in a love it/let me go relationship with Genshin Impact. lol
You're also right I can't go into my company or clients unfortunately. It's a murky area at times. Though in a sense ALL games are a form of manipulation. But so too are a lot of other forms of media. E.g. when there is 'F**k yeah' moment in a Marvel movie or a John Williams score sweeps you up it's all related to someone to trying to control your emotions. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. The BIG difference with games and gamified websites is they are often trying to convince you to spend more time and/or money on them directly (though movies are often doing it indirectly).
I remember when Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror etc. - who used to work on CEX in London back in the day) made a show called How Video Games Changed the World he put the #1 most influential video game as Twitter! Granted this was almost 10 years ago or so but he had a point.
"Twitter is massively multiplayer online game in which you choose an interesting avatar and them roleplay a persona loosely based on your own attempting to accrue followers by repeatedly pressing lettered buttons to form interesting sentences" And so the cycle was complete
Anyway I've probably deviated from the main topic long enough. Back to Game Club! Need to do some work, stop playing Genshin Impact and play Psychonauts.
Ok almost done with the original Pshyconauts. I'm at the circus with the bunny so it's gotta be the last level I think. Overall I'm really impressed with the different level designs and story, especially with how old the game is. Got me pumped for jumping right into the sequel afterwards.
I have finished Psy 2 yesterday and I am only missing collectibles in 4 levels (so far there are two levels even after going back I am still missing one or two figments).
After I am done with it I will most likely go back to the first one. I had started it earlier in the year on PC and when I got the series X was the first game I downloaded but unfortunately it does not have cross saves and at the time I was not into starting from scratch and loose the couple of hours I had.
@SplooshDmg the two levels I have gone back and still missed some are casino with two missed and rock band with only missed. Then there are other two I have not gone back yet that I am not sure which
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