Recently Completed Games

Oh hey it's a new page. The previous one has me ranting about Control, feel free to skip it.

Wild Hearts.

A.k.a. 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Like Tolerate the Grind.'

It's hard not to feel a little sorry for Omega Force.

After two competent-yet-middling entries in the monster-hunting genre - 2013's Toukiden and its sequel, 2016's imaginatively-named Toukiden 2 - it seemed as though they'd finally hit upon something special with 2023's Wild Hearts.

Take a generous dollop of Monster Hunter, add a pinch of Fortnite-style ad hoc building, and season liberally with Omega Force's own hack and slash bona fides (honed over many years via the Dynasty Warriors series). Et voila! A hunting game that looked as though it'd provide some genuine, long-overdue competition to Capcom's flagship franchise.

As it turns out, not so much - Wild Hearts was "abandoned" six months after launch, having failed to make an impact upon release (or at any point thereafter, if we're being brutally honest).

The PlayStation and Xbox versions of Monster Hunter Rise - a game that was two years old by then - pipped Wild Hearts to the post by a couple of weeks, generating significantly more media coverage (and gamer excitement) than Omega Force's latest effort.

The announcement of Monster Hunter Wilds, four months after the "abandonment" of Wild Hearts, was met with rapturous glee from all quarters; by that point, Wild Hearts itself had been well and truly forgotten, blown away like a silent but deadly fart let loose amid hurricane-force winds.

All of which strikes me as manifestly unfair, for two main reasons: 1) the whole, "Wild Hearts has been abandoned!" narrative is more than a trifle misleading, and 2) the game itself is actually pretty bloody good.

On the first front, I don't think it's altogether accurate to accuse Electronic Arts, Omega Force, or Koei Tecmo of cutting and running. Yes, Wild Hearts is a Monster Hunter clone, but no-one announced an Iceborne- or Sunbreak-style expansion - people just assumed that post-launch support would be more substantial than it actually was, based on the precedent set by Capcom.

More content was added to Wild Hearts in the time between launch and the plug being pulled. Were the devs blindsided by EA's decision to drop support when it did? Maybe, although that's hardly unprecedented in the current, ever-tumultuous world of AAA game development.

Point is, this wasn't a Redfall scenario, in which the publisher sold a season pass under false pretences (before issuing pseudo-refunds to disappointed purchasers, in the form of Itchy and Scratchy money) - unless I'm much mistaken, nothing was promised that wasn't delivered.

(Side note: one of the valid criticisms of Wild Hearts involved the poor state of its PC version, and I totally agree that support shouldn't have been pulled before it had been fixed.)

Moving onto the second point, Wild Hearts is a LOT of fun to play... and sometimes, that's enough.

Remember this guy? Sure, it's easy (and fair) to mock a dumbass marketing exec who doesn't know his audience, but the truth is that some games really *are* just about pushing buttons and watching cool shit happen. Wild Hearts is one such game.

In Wild Hearts, you can push a button and parry an incoming attack from some monster or other. It could be a warthog the size of a bungalow, or a huge frost-covered wolf, or a gigantic lava-spewing ape - the specifics don't much matter. Just hit that button at the right time, and not only will you avoid taking damage, but you'll also fill your weapon's special meter considerably.

That, my friends, is fuckin' cool.

And it doesn't stop there. In addition to each of the eight weapons being distinctive and fun in its own right - although I used the Bladed Wagasa throughout my playthrough, they're all viable from what I've seen and heard - the karakuri building system brings a whole new level of controlled chaos to the proceedings.

A monster prepares to charge at you? No sweat - conjure a wall from thin air, watch the beast k.o. itself, then go to town.

Your foe pauses for breath? Teach it a lesson and create a honking great spring-loaded wooden mallet, the type of thing Wile E. Coyote might order from the ACME catalogue on a particularly whimsical day, to smack it silly.

That flying kemono is causing you grief with its tendency to stay just out of reach? By holding L1 (or the Xbox equivalent) and tapping a few of the face buttons, you can fabricate a harpoon to bring the airborne pest down to earth.

And so on, and so on, and so forth.

All that having been said, this game has its flaws: jank aplenty (mostly of the 'goofy' and 'charming' varieties, but sometimes of the 'infuriating' ilk); three difficulty spikes during the main campaign, each of which can slow one's progress to a crawl; the uneasy feeling that many hunts were designed with multiplayer in mind, leaving us solo players to struggle onward by ourselves; and the sense that while all weapons are viable, some are better-suited than others when it comes to fighting certain kemono.

Then there's the grind.

Grinding, in the sense of having to hunt the same monsters over and over again as you farm them for parts, is an intrinsic part of this genre. Like backtracking in a Metroidvania, or starting back at square one after you die in a roguelike, there's no getting around it - unless you're some sort of MLG-level, god-tier gamer, you'll have to embrace the grind if you want to progress.

In a hunting game, you can't surmount a challenging obstacle by repeatedly levelling up your character; you can't farm currency and buy an overpowered weapon from a vendor, or a strong armour set to increase your survivability; you can't even luck out and find some awesome gear in a random chest while exploring a dungeon, as you might in another loot-heavy game.

No, there's nothing else for it: if you're going to advance, you'll need better equipment, and you'll have to provide all the components to forge said gear yourself. Not by purchasing them, but by treating each visit to the wilderness as a trip to a particularly dangerous supermarket.

Simply put, you'd better be prepared to slap around a LOT of native fauna, and that's just if you want to roll credits - if you plan to dig into the endgame content as well, you'll have to clear some major space on your gaming schedule.

For my money, such as it is, Wild Hearts is one of the most interesting games to come out in recent years.

It very well could've done what Dauntless, God Eater, and Toukiden before it had failed to do, and established the monster-hunting sub-genre as an actual *thing* (the same way Lords of the Fallen kickstarted the Soulslike craze a decade ago); however, it fell short of this target, and ended up as an also-ran like its predecessors.

Neither a smash hit like World and Rise (still the monster-hunting titans, even now), nor a catastrophic flop like Gollum and Redfall (two of last year's more memorable failures), Wild Hearts just kind of exists... which is a crying shame, really.

I don't know whether it's an 8/10 that's held back by its deficiencies, or a 7/10 that punches above its weight; either way, I'm going with

7.5/10.

Airs Adventure (Saturn on Retroarch)

The Saturn was known as a JRPG powerhouse, but if you only played this game, you would never tell. It came out a month before FF7, and while I can understand there was probably a big difference in budget, this one just sucks. Between the cookie-cutter plot, extreme linearity, primitive graphics, and a battle system devoid of any depth whatsoever, it might well be one of the worst games I've ever finished.

Good thing for Retroarch, because at least it let me speed up battles. It takes around 10 hours to complete (there are no sidequests whatsoever), probably the longest 10 hours of my life.

3/10

rftp Never say never my friend, there's bound to be a PS6 remaster around the corner

then there will be the updated ps6 pro anniversary edition

Herc's Adventure

I finally got around to playing Herc's Adventures on the PS1, a game I've been curious about for years. I actually asked for it as a gift back in the day from the parents but ended up receiving Disney's Hercules instead *shakes ungrateful fist*

Herc's is an action-adventure game that’s a bit like Zelda but without the charm or gameplay. It's got an open(ish) world where you can explore, solve puzzles, and battle mythological creatures. It has that classic LucasArts charm, especially in the voice acting, which was surprisingly good for the time but then again, considering LucasArts' history with great voice work, it's not too surprising.

One thing that stood out was how it doesn’t hold your hand – if you’re used to more modern games that guide you through every step, this one might feel pretty challenging. I had to resort to a guide a few times because I got stuck and couldn't figure out what to do next. But for players who like a bit of a challenge, that could be part of the appeal.

Oh, and the end credits are... different. I won’t spoil anything, but it's definitely a quirky touch that you might not expect.

Overall, I’d say it's a decent game but probably only for those who have a lot of affection for the OG PlayStation era and can appreciate some of the rougher edges of retro gaming. I’d give it a 7/10. Not a must-play, but worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre.

I played this around the same time as completing Diablo 4 so I might bore you lot with my thought on that tomorrow.

Diablo 4

Justc finished my first playthrough of Diablo 4 and as a newcomer to the series, I really enjoyed my time with it. I'd always heard people talk about the addictive gameplay loop and yeah, I totally get it now. The combat, looting, and progression had me hooked, but what surprised me the most was the story.

Considering this is the 4th game in the series, I thought I’d be lost, but it did a great job of pulling me in and keeping me invested. The dark, gritty world and the way Blizzard introduced the lore really worked for someone like me who had no background in the series. I played it on Game Pass and I'm tempted to grab the DLC once I manage to chip away at my huge backlog.

9/10

Yeah surprised me too when I was trawling through about a week ago.

Some real random stuff on there alongside some gems.

It is a bit hack and slash but there are deeper components within like the skill tree and all the gear you get.

A lot of the side missions are standard fetch quest fare but there are a few that have a a decent little story that do add to the overarching themes of the plot.

Ha! Shows how much attention I pay to the PS+ games, I already own it!!

Downloading...

DOOM + DOOM II (PC)

Took me almost 70 hours to get through all the games included. That's a lot of meat to the plate, but not all of it is a classic. Ultimate Doom, No Rest For The Living and Legacy of Rust are highlights (escept for the last map which was just unfair). The others, well. Quality is wildly varying. Doom 2, Plutonia and Sigil are okay. TNT and Master Levels are just a slog.

Aside from achievements and an easy mod browser, it doesn't really add much to the table that GZDoom doesn't do better already. Still, it was free for owners of the previous versions, just like Quake and Quake 2, so that's always appreciated from Nightdive.

8/10

I wonder what they will announce next. Hexen and Heretic? Blood 2? I could go for Realms of the Haunting myself...

It’s an underrated gem for sure. I posted similar earlier in the year. I really hope it was successful enough for a sequel. Top notch AA game.