What Games Are You Playing?

Been playing Daxter. Originally came out way back when in 2006 on the PSP. Never played it as kid as never owned a PSP, and initially quit Jak & Daxter after Jak 2 angered me greatly. But now it's on the PS5 in 4k so why not~

Interesting to play now; so long removed from the 3D platforming/collectishit era. Jak infamously ditched platforming to be a GTA drive/shooting wannabe thing with Jak 2, and Daxter is set between 1 & 2; filling in the blanks. That said, the story is threadbare to nonexistent - Dax working as a (metal head) bug exterminator, whilst forgetting to rescue Jak - but the gameplay has aged surprisingly well. Once you get the 'bug spray gun' (reminds me of Luigi's Mansion) that doubles as a flamethrower, it becomes a lotta fun as it also triples as a hover-glide tool to stay airborne. The combat is shoddy, often limited to spraying and then mashing melee, but jump-exploring is always satisfying.

Given it was made for the PSP, cutscenes and voice acting are limited. A pity, since Daxter's never-shut-up humour is mostly muted here, bar a few interactions with a sexy walking woman that gives him gun parts he flirts with. But the level design and variety is mostly excellent: an underground train station with moving trains jump on being a highlight, plus a huge construction site, and even a few vehicle stages.

My only real complaints are the music and QTE mini-games. Not having the Crash/Jak composer is a huge loss 'ere, as his tribal jungle bongo beats and more moody dystopian driving tunes defined the main series. Daxter has more a... repetitive & forgettable U/PG13 whimsical soundtrack. And as for the mini-games, they're ALL dpad/face-button rhythm things. The mini-game dreams where Daxter cosplays as Neo from the Matrix, Indiana Jones and LotR Gandalf are... of their time but amusing. The more forced tedious hacking story stuff, less so.

Pretty good for a Jak & Daxter game not by Naughty Dog, and a nice way to end things by returning to the series' platforming roots (/Lost Frontier does not exist). It even looks quite impressive, upscaled.
 
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For over a month now I’ve played through Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition courtesy of the new NSW2 edition.

For the most part I had a good time with this, exploring the world and doing endless sidequests as my expanding crew levelled up. What almost killed the game for me was the grinding involved, mainly towards being strong enough to take down the hardest enemy in the game and complete the map once and for all. That alone took 10-15 hours extra. The music also became a bit monotonous after a while, especially the songs that plays throughout the New Los Angeles hub area.
 
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HWR said:
For over a month now I’ve played through Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition courtesy of the new NSW2 edition.

The music also became a bit monotonous after a while, especially the songs that plays throughout the New Los Angeles hub area.
Click to expand...

Sawano doing a game OST, back when I was into his 🎵, will always be special to me. Many of the tracks are as epic - and familiar - as his anime stuff. One of his better works, I'd say. That said, the lyrics in NLA are... unforgettable.

Actual Lyrics:
uh yeah, uh yeah, uh uh uh uh yeah uh yeah, uh uh, uh, uh yeah yeah (yes) yeah, uh UH, uh yeah, yeah, uh yeah, uh, uh yeah, yeah uh uh uh yeah (yeaah!), uh yeah, yeah uh uh, yeah yeah (yeah) uh yeah woooooooo yeah, uh yeah, uh, uh yeah, yeah uh uh uh (yeah) yeah, uh yeah, yeah uh uh uh, yeah yeah, uh yeah, yeah yeahh uh uh, gibberish (yeah) yeah, uh yeah yeah (yeh) uh yeah (yeh) uh uh (yeh) yeah, uh yeah wooooooo (yeah) yeah uh uh, gibberish (yeah) yeah, uh yeah YEAH, uh yeah UH, uh Yeah (yeah) uh uh uh (yeah) yeah, uh yeah, uh yeah, uh yeah, uh uh uh

Saw a few angry reviews about the NLA music on Amazon, back in the day.

Did they ever fix the Definitive Edition Switch 2 Edition Upscaled Edition btw? Was gonna go back to it after buying but saw reports it blurry/a mess.

Edit: Linked to correct part for lyrics to match, 2m33s.
 
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I can’t say I noticed too many visual flaws during my playthrough, certainly nothing that hindered my experience, though I played the game exclusively Docked, and it was apparently a more prominent in handheld mode (from what I’ve read anyway.)
 
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Game #26 - inFAMOUS (PlayStation 3)
Acquired: 24.04.2021 - Started: 20.07.2026 - Finished: 26.07.2026 (Story), 30.07.2026 (Playthrough #2 + Platinum)

After a brief break from gaming and the sudden news that Sony will once again close the PlayStation 3 store, another piece of information appeared and that came from Sucker Punch themselves, the developers behind Sly Cooper and Ghosts of Tsushima that the online servers for their inFAMOUS games will be concluded by the end of August which means the Platinum trophy will be unobtainable for two of the games released on the console.

Because of that news, it was time for me to finally take a look at this popular action game that is still stuck on the PlayStation 3. Surprisingly was never remastered on modern PlayStation hardware, but then again neither was Killzone and Resistance. The first game doesn't have online trophies but they're story driven so I wanted to experience them in order.

inFAMOUS is an interesting game because when it was first released it was often compared to Radical Entertainment's Prototype which had a similar concept and were literally released a month apart. I have played Prototype first on Xbox 360 as a rental but not to a big extent so I can see why the comparisons were made.

inFAMOUS focuses on our main character Cole who suddenly wakes up with electrical powers after an explosion caused by a device called the Ray Sphere and as a result, the city that he lives in has put into lockdown and a group of gangs have hijacked each district. Along the way you have the choice to become a good hero or an evil villain which adds a lot to the game's system and replay value. After playing through the game twice; one Normal difficulty playthrough as a Good character, and another on Hard difficulty as an Evil character, inFAMOUS has held up really well for the most part.

Cole can drain electricity from various devices and doing so also helps regenerate your health which is super useful in tough situations. He also has slots that he can ultilise to pull off any electrical special moves, whether it be shooting grenades, rockets or sniping enemies from a distance. He can also pull off a Thunder Drop move by jumping/falling from a big distance and smashing the ground, electrocuting anyone nearby. You can also use gravity in a way by pushing enemies and objects out of the way in front of you and glide onto other buildings and slide to each area using the rails which are a lot of fun.

The game is semi-open world and you can access each district as the story progresses, but you will also need to take over each district from the enemies that are pre-occupying them and to do that you need to complete various side-missions. These missions vary from defeating enemies, protecting a train to get from Point A to B, following enemies without being noticed and grabbing their shards, or taking out people for the fun of it.

What made inFAMOUS stood out to me was how it uses the karma mechanic. It's not an original idea in a sense considering Mass Effect and other RPGs have this but I would think the game populated the idea more for a wider audience. Being a good person makes you feel more like a hero to the civilians around you, who cheer you on and even throw stones at enemies the better the reputation you have. You can also improve your good karma by healing people and taking on the Good side missions that support the police in the area.

Being an evil person will slowly turn you into a corrupt individual with electric marks and red energy on your body. The civilians will start to fear you and throw stones at you the worse the reputation you receive. Killing people and destroying everything in front of you as well as taking on the Evil side missions that are connected to a side character in the game's story will also improve your evil karma. Being a good or evil person also impacts the game's story which is interesting and allows for fun replayability to see differing outcomes.

The main core part of the story is still the same but there will be differences in the dialogue and cutscenes. That said, you will have differing abilities that will change up the gameplay a bit, adding benefits depending on whether you're good or evil. Evil is best suited for the harder difficulty because you can take advantage of not trying to restrict yourself when you're attacking enemies in the wide open, because civilians can get in the way at times. After playing both playthroughs and their respective outcomes, I found the evil route to be better for gameplay but the good route to be more canonical to the game's overall story and outcome.

With the side missions, collectibles and different enemy factions in this game, it reminded me of the Crackdown franchise over on Xbox 360 which was a lot of fun. Speaking of collectibles you have dead drops that are satellite dishes that add more story lore for one of the side characters that you interact with during the second half of the game, and blast shards which are all over the map and there are over 350 of them which you can find using the dial on your map or using a guide to carefully make note of which ones are left to collect. I recommend saving the shards for post-story on a Normal difficulty playthrough and grab them at your own pace on Hard difficulty playthrough.

In terms of flaws, inFAMOUS does have clunky gameplay especially during climbing segments. Cole will automatically grab onto ledges and sometimes climbing up walls is pretty rough. The gameplay also feels like a third-person shooter because that's his main attack move which is strange but his melee attack is pretty weak. There are a lot of frustrating moments but fortunately the checkpoint system is very generous even on Hard difficulty so I'm not too bothered by that. The characters are decent but the twist at the end feels a bit underwhelming if I'm being honest. The journey was good and the comic book style art style was a nice touch to the narrative.

I did manage to get the Platinum trophy after two playthroughs which was achieved over the course of 10 days (with most of my day being at work or in town, so an average of about 3-4 hours of gameplay per day). Annoyingly there's no time tracker but I speculate that my first playthrough was about 15 hours of playtime with an additional 4 hours for post-game collectibles followed by a 12 hour playtime for the Hard difficulty mode.

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Game #27 - inFAMOUS 2 (PlayStation 3)
Acquired: 01.06.2021 - Started: 02.08.2026 - Finished: 07.08.2026 (Story), 09.08.2026 (Playthrough #2 + Platinum)

Next I play the second mainline game in the inFAMOUS franchise which was released in 2011. inFAMOUS 2 continues the events of the first game (though its not clear on which was considered canon between the Good and Evil routes but I speculate it's probably Good or Neutral) as the story moves away from Empire City towards New Marais which is inspired by New Orleans in terms of aesthetic and design.

Alongside Cole, Zeke also returns from the first game and he's been given more character and a change in attitude this time compared to the first game as he's more of an engineer who crafts items and spies on enemy opponents to support Cole and others throughout the course of the story. There are references to a few other characters from the first game but for the most part the cast are new.

So the story this time is that The Beast is coming and is heading towards the location where Cole is at and he needs to be prepped and ready. Like the first game, inFAMOUS 2 has three big areas you can explore; the first island which has stores and big buildings but not like Empire City, and the second island which is split into two parts; one being flooded with damaged buildings and another more fuel factory focused. The first island is just as good as the first game with its surroundings while the second island does change it up with the environment but it can feel like a chore at times especially with the amount of water that's in the way (since Cole can't touch water otherwise he'll take damage or die instantly).

inFAMOUS 2 also upgrades Cole's abilities. So each of the abilities from the first game do make their return but have been expanded so you can get different variants for each type which changes up how you want to play the game. The Karma system also returns and continues to change up the abilities you can earn depending on which route you take which are more elemental (fire and ice) this time around. I do like the variety of abilities though I do feel it doesn't cause as much of an impact in terms of damage compared to the first game. That said, the addition of the Ionic Vortex is a pretty neat feature as very handy in terms of taking care of numerous enemies in your way (it's this game's equivalent to the Ionic Storm from the previous game).

The story was better and surprisingly as bleak as the previous game, with better cutscenes and an interesting direction for the final act. The karma system was more generous this time because you can technically get both endings on the same playthrough by changing up your karma but you're better off starting a new playthrough which is what I did. Like before I chose the Good route for the Normal difficulty and the Evil route for the Hard difficulty.

Another new addition to inFAMOUS 2 are the types of Good and Evil side content you can do to build your karma. Good route includes deactivating bombs, saving people from being captured or executed, and healing people. Evil route includes assaulting protesters and musicians, attacking police and stealing shards from people. Like before, the Good and Evil side missions also return but are more story focused this time and feels more relevant to the main story, and by completing one it does remove a slot for the other.

One last bit of mention is the User-Generated Missions which is this game's online service where players can create new missions for everyone and it's a really cool idea to help expand the experience for your playthrough and I will say they have been pretty creative on what you can do. It's gotten to a point where trophy hunters have managed to take advantage of them to speed up some of the trophies that would normally be a struggle like collectibles.

Yes, the infamous shards from the first game is back and I was able to get all of them in this game in a matter of seconds thanks to the UGC missions. One less headache to deal with. The karma system can also be sped up with these missions but the developers did update the setup so you can't get tons of XP from doing this constantly. I will mention that part of the reason I started playing these games sooner was because of the news that the online servers will be shutdown on August 31st which impacts the trophy list for this game.

And like before I was able to obtain the Platinum trophy which was technically easier this time around and it allowed my progression on Hard difficulty to be much faster than anticipated. Like before, two playthroughs over the course of about 7-8 days (an average of about 3-4 hours of gameplay per day until the last two days where I was focused on getting the second playthrough out of the way as soon as possible). Annoyingly there's no time tracker but I speculate that my first playthrough was about 12 hours of playtime with an additional half an hour for a couple trophies followed by around ~8 hour playtime for the Hard difficulty mode.

Overall inFAMOUS 2 was an improvement to the original. Whilst the change in environment, extra variety of abilities and story were really solid, the AI and combat at times does set the game back a bit as I felt it wasn't as enjoyable as the first game in parts and that may be due to the power of the abilities themselves because you don't feel the destruction that it does unless it's the Vortex one. Also the amount of times that enemies kept shooting grenades and rocket launchers even in your face was pretty ridiculous.

A couple enemies were also pretty spongy in terms of health and were so tedious to take down it felt like the pacing was being impacted in some instances, which was mainly during the second half of the game. That said, I do think that inFAMOUS 2 is still worth a play as it also concludes the story surprisingly well (like how God of War Ragnarok concluded the Norse saga) and was a fun Platinum run.

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Game #28 - inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood (PlayStation 3)
Acquired: 10.08.2026 - Started: 15.08.2026 - Finished: 15.08.2026 (Story), 15.08.2026 (100% Completion)

Rounding out the marathon of inFAMOUS games is their standalone expansion released a few months after their second instalment. Festival of Blood is a fun non-canonical adventure as Cole ends up becoming a vampire and must do what's necessary to become human again before sunrise. The game takes place in the same location as inFAMOUS 2 but it's very vague on when the events take place considering how the ending of the previous game turned out - that said it does mean you can technically jump into this without having any knowledge of the previous games.

One notable difference with Festival of Blood is there's no karma system involved so you can attack civilians by sucking their blood and kill other vampires in the game and it won't cause any impact to how people see you. Not long after the first few missions you can freely explore the city by fighting vampires in their packs and collecting items scattered throughout the map that build your blood meter. The blood meter allows you to turn into a series of bats and traverse through the area pretty quickly which was pretty fun. You do need to suck people's blood to refill the bar, as the other abilities are done using electricity which Cole still has.

There are limited abilities in this game and you can unlock them from defeating enemies, finding collectibles and completing the User-Generated Missions which by August 31st would have the servers closed which would render the 100% trophy completion unobtainable and even a few power-ups locked behind the online system.

The story is also pretty solid and a fun take on the vampire concept, though you do have two User Generated Missions that are manually there by the developers which do feel out of place because its a different format to the others but overall it was very enjoyable. The difficulty is also pretty tough as you can find yourself getting hurt and killed much faster than you would expect which was pretty tedious during the final battle so you do have to be careful about your surroundings especially when dealing with dozens of vampires in front of you.

inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood is a pretty short game overall as I was able to complete the story and acquire all of the trophies in just 2 hours 35 minutes in total, but I do think this was worth the trip as it was a fun creative take on the mainline series. The game was released as a digital only PlayStation Network title so while you can acquire the inFAMOUS Collection in the US this is still a download code (whereas in comparison Killzone HD is available on-disc in the Killzone Trilogy release), so you have until July 2027 to purchase a license to this game before it disappears.


I've been distracted lately but thankfully I got my summaries of each of these games sorted. Next game I'm currently playing is...

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