materwelonz
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March 2023 Channel Update – Why Can’t I Hold All These First Looks?
🕑 Added 2023-03-23 20:44:57 +0000 UTCHey hey,
Hope you are well!
It’s ramping up to be one of Those Months (when is it ever not lol)!! I took the last bit a little easier, did a bunch of first looks cause I didn’t want to commit to big stuff before RE4, which inevitably led me to the “now I know this game is good & I wanna continue but I feel this way about 50 games simultaneously” pipeline and I’m just 🥲...
well I will leave all that for FutureWelonz to think about…!!
TL;DR
- Finished: Hi-Fi RUSH
- Ongoing: Dragon Age 2
- Upcoming: Resident Evil 4 Remake
Finished Since Last Update
Hi-Fi RUSH (9 longer parts): A music action game where we murderize the bad guys… on beat!
Normally music & rhythm games are pretty out of my wheelhouse, but the comedy and on-point banter + voice acting kept me coming back for more. It’s just pure, unadulterated fun. As much as I want you to watch the videos & all I think this is definitely one to pick up for yourself! It’s super accessible to players of any level of music experience/rhythm skill.
We had first looks of:
Returnal: A roguelite with what seems to be a compelling mystery of a woman being brought back time and time again to an eerie foreign planet. I initially skipped out on this since I didn’t get a PS5 at launch but the PC version seems quite polished in all aspects. I’m reaaally tempted to continue this - I think the only thing stopping me is the unpredictable-ish, skill level-dependent amount of playtime hours tbh.
A Space for the Unbound: A point & click pixel adventure set in the rural Indonesia in the late 90s about a pair of high school sweethearts just about to graduate. There are some magical shenanigans going on although it’s not entirely clearly what just yet!
This is more of a personal aside but I really enjoy checking out games about/created by people from cultures not usually featured in popular mainstream titles. Seeing Indonesian viewers get excited about this must be like how I feel about games set in Hong Kong hahaha. It’s really great to see gamedev-ing get more and more global too!
Road 96: Mile 0: Prequel to Road 96 which I did a first look on before: a choose-your-own-adventure laced with bizarre/hilarious minigames and music levels, all set against a backdrop an oppressed nation. Cool vibes just like Road 96, although unfortunately I ran into unexpected copyright problems with the music in this one, making continuing extremely difficult ☹
TCHIA Full Release: We checked out the preview a few months ago so this time I focused on the story that gave context on how Tchia’s journey started. Still as wholesome and cute as ever, although I think honing in on story bits doesn’t show off the exploration freedom as well as in the preview video.
I feel like this is a great one for general chilling & relaxation which would be a great contrast to the Serious Games on the channel. Would like to continue but it’s getting Busy and I don’t want this cute game to feel like a chore – I’ll look more into if this is possible… 🥺(Their PR team also sent me a whole ass ukulele which definitely is Not influencing my decision, I definitely haven’t been completely obsessed with it for the past few days 🗿 🗿 🗿)
(We also looked at the RE4 Remake Demo, which we’ll play in full very soon!)
Progress on Current Stuff
Dragon Age 2: We’re squarely in Act 2 of 3 now! There are some seams and cracks that wear on me now that I’ve been playing for a bit (no more endless waves of enemy mobs pls) but I think overall there’s still much to enjoy in the characters & story.
Storyteller: A puzzle game involving placing scenes & characters to create your own stories. Published by Annapurna so you know I couldn’t resist lol. It’s super cute and sometimes unintentionally hilarious – all the shifting stuff around reminds me a tad of Gorogoa (also from Annapurna). This’ll be a short 3-part series!
Upcoming Stuff
As mentioned before, my next big thing should be Resident Evil 4 Remake!
I haven’t uploaded it yet but I’ve also tried a few hours of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order – been enjoying it despite knowing not much of SW in general. (I’ve seen 8 of 9 movies actually, but it was long ago & I watched kinda passively so I forgot most things lol.) I’d like to start/continue this as a series, but timing-wise it’s difficult – I didn’t want to start it before RE4 and end up with too much on my plate, then if I do manage to fit the whole thing in before the sequel coming out on Apr 28 I’ll also be away for 2 weeks in May. Not to mention the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores DLC comes out on Apr 19 as well…!
I’m not sure how to make this work – atm thinking it’s best to focus on RE4 first and see where that leaves me in terms of dates & timings.
Whew, writing all this out puts into perspective how crazy game release schedules can be. I’m sure there’s even more cool & exciting stuff I missed somewhere too… feel free to let me know any thoughts/questions you have in the comments! Otherwise, I’ll see you in the (new video games) trenches 🫡
Welonz
Comments
captain carrot
That's awesome to hear!
Materwelonz
I'm paying close attention to the KOTOR remake!
Materwelonz
I like what I saw so far, except for the first boss fight you come across where it kills you in like one hit but the loading screens take 30 seconds every time hahah.
captain carrot
The fact that you're enjoying BioWare games and now checking out Fallen Order gives me hope that some day we might see KOTOR on the channel...
Daniel Hanley
Whether or not you decide to play TCHIA, I'm hoping we hear some random ukulele on your channel, even if you don't know how to play
GameFuror
I love fallen order but man it's an annoying game at times
Materwelonz
The Q&A is mainly for questions to be answered in a video format, so if you're okay with text replies feel free to ask stuff here any time here! 1) Sometimes multiplayer stuff for spending time with friends, but outside of that, kinda rarely! Playing games is fun but having to do a "mandatory" amount for the channel usually means I want to spend the rest of my time on non-gaming stuff. 2) I don't have a continuous subscription but subscribe during specific periods when there's stuff I'm interested in. In Scorn's case I actually got a code from the developers! Andors: cool! I've heard a bit about this from friends as well - I'll be sure to keep it in mind :D
Brad Jung
Hi Welonz! I know the Q&A is over (thankfully right?!) but if you're taking questions in the comments, I had two! 1) Do you ever play games "off-channel?" For example you mentioned Paradise Killer was too text-heavy for a playthrough, but perhaps this, or other games you can play on your own? Of course, given your regular work/the channel I can't imagine you have much time for much else. 2) Do you use Xbox Gamepass at all? The platform has a lot of titles that might be nice for First Looks, and you don't have to worry about refunding etc if you don't like/can't continue the game. I noticed that you played Scorn back in October and was curious if you bought the game outright or tried via Gamepass. Since you're playing Jedi: Fallen Order I can't stress how good the Star Wars: Andor TV show is! You can go in with little/no prior knowledge of Star Wars and enjoy the political intrigue and dialogue. Definitely one of the best stories of the Star Wars films/shows. Other than that I hope you're doing well! Cheers!
naoxmon
Personally pretty happy with the current Dragon Age 2 and upcoming Resident Evil 4 schedule. Really glad you're enjoying Fallen Order and definitely hope you'll make it a series at some point, but there's no rush either. I'd rather you enjoy it when you have the time for it and when your schedule is not too packed (unless you really want to hit that Survivor release window). For Survivor, and several of your latest first looks, I kind of want to play them first, except I can't play 3 games at once like you often do, so for me it's totally fine if they become a series later :)
Suaffle
These updates are always so insightful, thank you for all that you do! I watched the first 5 minutes of Storyteller and just had to get it for myself, very charming game! - some of those achievements were real head scratchers though
Materwelonz
h-h-h-hold on...............................
Materwelonz
Ooo yes I do have my eye on Dredge - saw the great reviews today!
Vivi Cheung
Oh my god that Ukulele is beautiful!!! I see why you're like TOTALLY not swayed by it... 😆
Blue72
And the Ukulele concert that followed was magnificent! I thought your rendition of Invincible Rainbow Arrow was especially touching.
Captain Kashup
Oh boy, it's time !
Calliope Rannis
I'd really love it if you did get back to Returnal! Other than that, a game coming out end of March that you might lke is Dredge - it's a lovecraftian fishing game basically, and I find its way of storytelling quite fascinating. It's a game that at the very least, is VERY good about not letting you see the hidden monsters clearly. ;)
Jack Frost
I'm so happy that you're enjoying Jedi Fallen Order ! I think it's perfectly fine to wait until the end of either DA2 or RE4, even if it means missing the release date of the sequel. Playing 3 games at the same time is definitely unsustainable ! Thanks for another great month !
Thomas Mc
Congrats to FutureWelonz on the excellent 100k Sub Q&A, very informative
