Steam Winter Sale: Damage Report

I feel like I buy less and less each sale every year. It used to be quite exciting when you’d see a game at 50% off, but these days you realise the game is still over 30 quid even with the discount. There also wasn’t too much I was that interested in picking up. So here’s what I bought, and what I got free (or purchased!) over on Epic –

Baldur’s Gate 3 because how could I not play this overwhelmingly praised ‘masterpiece’ even though I’m not typically a fan of turned based or dice roll combat?

Sable is a game I got for free on Epic some time ago and reviewed on this blog – but I loved it so much, I decided to pick it up on Steam to play again.

I replayed Jedi: Fallen Order last year in anticipation of its sequel Jedi: Survivor, but given how poorly rated the PC port was, I didn’t get it at release. And, to be honest, I was still wary of picking it up in this sale because people say it’s still pretty broken. But it’s a game I really want to play so I’ll give it a shot.

Meanwhile, over on Epic I finally purchased my first game – Alan Wake 2. How could I not when the game was 20% off plus another 33% with a voucher. It was too good a deal not to take, especially when the game may never come to Steam.

I also claimed Guardians of the Galaxy, Ghostrunner and Ghostwire Tokyo for free which are all games I’ve thought about picking up but wasn’t totally convinced by. But free? Why not? I also claimed the new Saints Row but I don’t know if I’m actually bothered about playing it, and The Outer Worlds complete edition, which I know I won’t play because I found that game to be so f**king boring. I guess I thought I might want to try it again in the future? Probably not.

Now Playing: Phantom Liberty (DLC)

Phantom Liberty is the first and likely the last expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. It introduces a new area of Night City to explore – Dogtown – in the previously content sparse district of Pacifica. This new area is a fantastic addition, feeling very much like a city within a city. Geographically, the area is actually rather small, but it’s incredibly layered and dense with more verticality and open buildings than in any other area of Night City. There’s a lot to see, discover and explore with the addition of new side quests and gigs.

Although there’s not an abundance of new side content, what’s here is all of excellent quality and the gigs offer far more elaborate missions than those in the base game, with more character interactions and more choices on how they can be resolved. There’s also new ‘radiant’ style content in the form of airdrops and vehicle contracts.

But the heart of Phantom Liberty is a new main quest – a spy thriller involving secret agents, a missing President and a possible new way to save V from the Relic. I’d estimate it takes about 10 hours to complete, although that will depend upon your chosen difficulty and style of play. This new quest integrates into the base game during Act 2 and I’d say it integrates quite well – but certainly not perfectly.

I say ‘not perfectly’ because once you begin PL you’re essentially locked out of all other content for the next few hours, and even once you can travel freely between Dogtown and the rest of Night City, the nature of the quest line and how it’s entirely centred within Dogtown means you’ll likely want to keep everything else on hold until you’ve completed it.

It does result in a kind of separation between the PL content and the rest of the game. There are attempts to connect it through a few quest specific dialogue options related to base game content you may or may not have completed but on the whole, PL does feel pretty disconnected from everything else that’s going on – and even more so if you don’t unlock the new base game ending option.

Overall though, I thought the main quest in PL was pretty damn fantastic. It has its slow moments, but there’s a nice variety of quests, new mechanics, new locations and new characters to love and hate. And if there is one aspect of the base game that is perfectly incorporated into PL, it’s your interactions with Johnny Silverhand which add some welcome new dimensions to your evolving relationship.

Although there is an option to skip straight to Phantom Liberty, I chose to begin a fresh save from the very beginning of 2077 in order to experience the new 2.0 update. And this review is as much about 2.0 as it is PL because of how extensively it alters the base and expansion experience.

First of all – the visuals. With the new path tracing option, 2077 is easily one of the best looking games I’ve ever played. And thanks to the new DLSS 3.5 option, I can run the game at a minimum of 90 FPS at 1440p even in the busiest sections. The only downside to 3.5 right now is the very noticeable ‘ghosting’ effect on character faces at a distance, but I’m sure that’s something that will improve over time, just as it did with earlier DLSS releases.

The game now structures and unlocks its side content and gigs in a fashion that’s much better paced alongside the main content. What 2.0 does best though is revamp the attributes, skills and cyberware systems. I didn’t think these were bad prior to 2.0, but this update makes everything feel far more cohesive. Attributes are now more clearly defined in terms of what kind of play style you want to build. Cyberware is now more of a balancing act that also links more directly to the skills you’ve chosen and the abilities you’ve unlocked.

Previously, the skills in Cyberpunk were more generalised, but now each attribute has specific skill chains for particular weapon types and styles of play. And because skill points can be redistributed at will, you’re free to experiment as you please. Armour is also now linked to cyberware, so clothing options are entirely cosmetic. It’s a good change, but it’s a little weird how the game still rates clothing on a tiered scale. I guess that was kept in for crafting reasons.

Overall, 2.0 is an impressive update that makes Cyberpunk 2077 feel ‘complete’ in a way that it never quite did before. I already thought 2077 was excellent, and now it’s even better. In some ways it’s a shame that Phantom Liberty will likely be the last major piece of content released for the game but I do think it would be hard to integrate yet more ‘main’ style content into what is already a pretty packed experience. PL pulls its off, but only just.

As much as I love the game, by the time I’d wrapped up PL and most of the other core content, I was starting to burn out and had to take a break. You can have too much of a good thing, and PL does bloat the 2077 experience a little more than I’d like. If CDPR tried to add even more into the mix, I think it might prove extremely detrimental to the whole.

So if this is the end for 2077, it’s still a hell of a way to go out with a bang and PL clearly shows the developers have learnt a lot from the critical feedback of 2077 which hopefully means any potential Cyberpunk sequel can really hit the ground running on Day 1.

Phantom Liberty – 8/10

Cyberpunk 2077 (2.0) + Phantom Liberty – 9/10

The Clayton Awards 2023

Game of the Year 2023 – Starfield

I can understand why others may not enjoy Starfield as much as I did, why they may think it dated, but for all its flaws, I still think Starfield is a pretty remarkable game and experience. It’s the kind of game that reminds me why I still love and enjoy playing video games. It’s a one of a kind experience. The kind of game that doesn’t come along very often. A game I’ve already lost myself in for 200 hours and yet, I still want to keep going. There’s a lot more space out there for me to explore. (Full Review)

Most Disappointing Game of 2023 – Sons of the Forest

What I will say in its favour is that the potential is there. It can surpass the original with the right focus and updates. But, right now, I honestly can’t recommend it in its current state. I’d say it’s best to wait for those updates. I wasn’t sure if I should score Sons, given it’s in Early Access. But if they’re selling it, I’d say it’s fair game. I will, however, update this score over time if the game does improve. Let’s hope so, because I really would like to play this again when it’s more complete. (Full Review)

Gallery: Starfield (Part 1)

Now Playing: Scorn

Scorn is a (sort of) horror, (sort of) puzzle and (sort of) action game that I picked up on sale recently. I say it’s ‘sort of’ those things because it’s a little bit of everything but it doesn’t really excel at anything. The reason why I was interested in Scorn and, frankly, why anyone probably will be, is the visuals. Clearly inspired by the art of H. R. Giger, the visuals are the only real standout feature of Scorn, although they’re also not without issue.

I like how the main menu opens immediately into the game. There’s no exposition in Scorn. No cutscenes. The ‘story’ such as it is, is told entirely through the environment and your actions. It’s a story that does leave various aspects to your own interpretation but it provides enough information for you to come away feeling satisfied by the narrative. Well, I did. Others may find it frustratingly obscure.

As you traverse the impressive looking environments you’ll come across various puzzles to solve in order to progress. These are all fine. There’s nothing particularly challenging, but there’s nothing that’s too easy, either. Some require a little trial and error to figure out, but nothing that should annoy.

You’ll also have to fight a few enemies on your way. You can avoid a lot of these, and I’d recommend you do so where you can because the most common enemy you’ll face is of the irritating ‘spit goo at you’ variety which is never fun. There’s a couple more, but nothing very interesting. I do like the weapon / tool design though and how it integrates into the experience.

Your path through the game is entirely linear which does feel like a missed opportunity. The first puzzle, for example, has a couple of different solutions. I thought all the puzzles might offer a couple of different choices on how to proceed but unfortunately not. It’s a shame because doing so might have then resulted in a different outcome or ending based on the choices you made.

But no. After the first puzzle, everything is a linear progression and there’s no alternative ending. Not that I thought the ending was bad, just that an alternative path through the game might have encouraged another play.

Because Scorn, for me, is very much a ‘one and done’ kind of game. It’s short – about 4 hours max – and it has zero replay value. The visuals are great, but the style can grow repetitive in some areas and can result in some confusion when trying to navigate identical winding paths. There’s a strong atmosphere to the world but I never really found it as imposing or intimidating as I think was intended. The puzzles are fine – what few there are – as is the combat – what little there is.

Overall, I’d have to say I did enjoy the experience and I’m glad I played it, but I’m also glad I picked it up on sale. So I would recommend checking out Scorn, but only if you can get it on the cheap. It’s a decent experience which I felt was worth my (4 hours) time.

6/10

The Clayton Awards 2023: GOTY Nominees

It’s that time of the year when everyone gets very excited about Game of the Year awards. And by everyone I mean publishers who want to slap ‘Game X won 200 GOTY awards!’ on the cover of their GOTY editions. Because there’s so damn many GOTY awards these days and all of them are as meaningless as all the rest.

For some reason people think ‘The Game Awards’ is the ‘real’ one because it calls itself ‘The Game Awards’ but the last time I watched it most of the awards were handed out off-screen whilst ads were playing or corporate mascots were dancing in the aisles.

But we all know the truth – the only GOTY award that matters is right here – The Clayton Awards – and this is the 12^th Annual Clayton Awards for the Game of the Year 2023 & The Most Disappointing Game of 2023. No other categories, because I like to keep things simple.

But given how prestigious and sought after the Clayton GOTY Award has become, it seems wrong not to generate hype and anticipation by announcing the nominees in advance. I thought about doing a public poll of which 10% of the vote would count towards the winner but that would be a lie and total nonsense so I won’t. So here they are – the Nominees for the Clayton GOTY Award 2023 -