It should be well-established by this point that I’m a big ol’ Five Nights at Freddy’s fanboy, yes? Okay, good. With that understood, there’s one facet of the franchise that’s been absolutely gnawing away at me for a little over a year now: Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted. This is the VR entry in the series, and needless to say, I’ve had no VR headset to play it on, and the “flat” version that got released a while after just didn’t appeal to me. It seemed like a “why bother?” kind of situation. The whole point is to be in it. You take that away and you’ve got… well, you’ve still got a pretty robust game. But it’d be missing the spark that makes it truly special.
I’ve spent a lot of time watching people play “FNAF VR” on YouTube to vicariously get my fill, but again, it just wasn’t the same. And I had absolutely no idea on just what level it wasn’t the same. Last weekend I was finally able to strap on an Oculus Quest 2 headset and take my first trip into a virtual version of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
The title screen – the title screen – is God. Damn. Terrifying.
I don’t actually expect anyone to watch these things. They’re more for me to rediscover and reminisce about in six or seven years from now. This livestream of A Girls Fabric Face, in particular, is hilarious(ly bad) because of just how frightened I was by it. But stuff like this gets me. I just can’t deal with haunted houses or ghosts. I just can’t do it.
I really should be a little more prompt in writing posts for the VODs of my Twitch streams, but the fact of the matter is that said VODs don’t often go live for about a week after the stream anyway. When I just use the raw footage from Twitch, it’s not so bad, but sometimes I need to cut it a little, which takes time. Also I’m very stubborn about making sure that no video goes live on my YouTube channel without a thumbnail, and those… they take even longer. Because Photoshop is… well, it’s not hard. But I’m very lazy. Also, I don’t have an editing team to do all that admin stuff for me.
Lastly, and very specifically to this case, my PC decided to up and die after I ended the stream embedded below. Sophie’s Curse was so scary that the power supply straight up ceased functioning. Or something. Or maybe Vernon’s Legacy was so boring that the computer just couldn’t go on. That was the game I was streaming before Sophie, and I cut it out of the VOD because holy crap was it ever boring.
Anyhow, Sophie’s Curse was a lot of fun! I’m glad it ended up being something that I enjoyed. It’s a frantic game of ghost cat-and-mouse, and it’s absolutely terrifying. It had never really occurred to me before, but good sound design is like 90% of creating an effective spooky atmosphere, and Sophie’s Curse has it in spades. From the unrelenting pitter-patter of the rain outside, to disembodied screams and demonic breathing that comes out of nowhere, your ears are constantly under assault by a cavalcade of spooky sounds. It then becomes a guessing game as to which sounds are there to let you know you’re about to die, and which are there just to give you the jibblies.
I’m also very surprised that I managed to beat it. Or, I guess it was more accurate that I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to finish it. It seemed like one of those games where you can get a handle on it, but the difficulty just ramps up so high that you’re almost dependent on good RNG to succeed. Fortunately, the normal mode was a lot more lenient than I expected, and though Sophie did provide a good amount of pushback, I was able to come out on top in the end. Hooray! I have no intention of ever giving the “Nightmare” mode a real try, though. I think that “Curse” difficulty was juuuuust right for me.
Any hey, if you’re reading this on the day it’s posted… I’ll be doing another Twitch stream tonight. Seems like it’s going to be a Friday night staple, at least for a little while. Why don’t you drop in for a while?
It’s Canadian Thanksgiving Eve, and after a little reflection, I was none too surprised to come to the conclusion that I’ve got a heck of a lot to be thankful for in my life. If you need to find something to be thankful for, though, might I recommend this VOD version of my Twitch stream of an indie horror game called Shadows Peak?
I’m not gonna lie, it seems pretty generic at the start. But then I get jumpscared by a whale carcass! Who could have ever seen that coming!?
But seriously, this game goes places I never would have expected. It’s one of those precious few games that have genuinely caught me off guard and surprised me. I don’t dare say anymore. It is admittedly a long watch at almost 5 hours, but I honestly think it’s worth checking out. And if you would rather ignore my video and play the game for yourself? I’d absolutely endorse that! It’s not a masterclass in subverting expectations like Doki Doki Literature Club, but I had a good time with it and would give it a hearty recommendation.
Most of the games in the Five Night’s at Freddy’s series have been ported to the Switch over the last while, and as a huge fan of the franchise, of course I had to do a little double-dipping. While I own FNAFs 1 through 6 on Steam, I decided that I wanted to play Sister Location (FNAF 5) again, but from the comfort of my couch instead of hunched over a keyboard at my desk. Ironically, this is the only FNAF game that I’ve successfully played from start to finish, and thus had the least reason to purchase a second time.
Well, you could make a case for it when you consider that it’s also my favourite game in the “original” series. That was a big part of the decision. And also Pizzeria Simulator (FNAF 6) isn’t on Switch yet, and that one’s the closest competitor for the top spot on my list.
Anyway, the point is that even before re-buying and re-playing Sister Location, I’d been thinking about it a lot for some reason that I just can’t quite put my finger on. Playing it again will probably get it out of my thoughts for a while to come, but since it’s fresh in my mind, why not spend some time writing about it? I did say it was my favourite, after all. I ought to show it a little blog-style love.
So what I’m going to do is go through each night, and go through the main features of each one and what I think about them. What parts are strong, which parts are weak, and which parts drive me absolutely bonkers. Mild spoiler: there are two. That said, let’s mosey on into it.
God of War (PS4) – I’m quite surprised at how much I liked it, and especially how effective the ending was. It was completely the opposite of every video game ending ever, and I thought it was great. Totally caught me by surprise. If you missed it, I already wrote a bunch about this one.
FNAF AR: Special Delivery (iOS) – I wasn’t expecting much, but got even less than that, because the game kept crashing after being open for a minute. So I barely even know what it’s about. It may because my phone is sorely outdated, but I prefer to think that the app is just that poorly-made. Deleted after about 10 minutes of struggling against it.
I set up a Twitch.tv account a few weeks ago. Finally. You would think that this is something I would have done ages ago, if only to follow streamers that I like to watch. But… I don’t actually watch any streamers. Not live, anyway. I can’t be bothered to follow other people’s schedules.
Anyway, it’s been one heck of a learning experience. The most important lesson being that I really need to make sure that my audio levels are set properly. I’ve done two streams now, and both times, getting the game and mic audio tracks to play nice has been a giant hurdle. So I’ve actually gone ahead and done a whole buttload of testing for this week’s stream.
Oh yes, did I not mention? My plan is to stream on Friday nights, and I have christened it the Friday Night Spooker Stream. Because… staying up too late playing spooky games is what I like to do on a Friday night anyhow. And this is also a great way to motivate me to continue working through my massive steam backlog.
Last weekend I played through Oxenfree, which is one of those rare games I bought purposely on Steam, and didn’t just get in a bundle. I’ve actually wanted to play Oxenfree since it was released, but just never made the time. When Friday came around and I was looking for a game to kick off the stream with, Oxenfree just happened to be installed, and I knew that it was a 4-5 hour playthrough. Perfect!
As I mentioned before though, the stream didn’t exactly work as planned. I spent the first couple minutes listening to the stream’s audio through my laptop, and it seemed fine, but three-ish hours in, I was informed that my mic audio was almost completely drowned out. Whoops! Worse yet, I didn’t even end up really solving the problem. The VOD version is up on my YouTube channel (embedded below), if you feel like checking out how bad it was. (At least you can still watch the playthrough of the game.)
Two new Monster Hunter game for Switch were announced this morning. TWO! Yes, they’re both 2021 releases, but that’s fine! I can wait! Just gimme dem monsta hoonts!
Monster Hunter Rise looks like it might be Monster Hunter 6? It really makes me wonder what direction(s) the series will be going in. Like, I’m pretty sure Monster Hunter World moved a metric buttload of units and was critically acclaimed, so why did Capcom jump back to the Switch for the next installment? Unless Rise is going to be a parallel series? But it looks like a lot of the major changes from World (seamless maps, grappling hook, monster turf wars) are carrying over to Rise, so it’s hard to say. I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’ll buy every Monster Hunter game regardless of platform, but I would be slightly happier if they’d just choose a lane and stick to it.
Or somehow make every game available on all platforms, but I fully understand why that might be difficult/impossible.
Monster Hunter Stories 2 is also super hype, and really makes me regret not having finished the first one. It was a lot of fun, but just got lost in the tidal wave of video games. My only concern about MHS2 is that the trailer makes it look super-serious, when the original game was very cartoony and had a silly, self-aware vibe to it. Hopefully the trailer for MHS2 is just highlighting the story parts, and the game still has a good sens of humour about it. At least 50% of MHS’s appeal was in its charm, so it would be a massive loss if they pivoted to a more “mature” tone. I’m absolutely going to buy it either way, but just sayin’.
Fitness Boxing 2 was also announced today, which I am legitimately very excited about, but this post is about MONSTER HUNTERING, DARN IT.
Yesterday, Nintendo uploaded a fun new promotional video to show off all the junk they’re going to try to sell you for Mario’s 35th anniversary. You can watch it below.
And it’s like, okay, most of these products I don’t really give a sniff about. The LEGO, the t-shirts, the AR Mario Kart… thing, a Super Mario 3D World re-release. Cool things that fans might enjoy, but are not for me, specifically. But there were a couple items that I would definitely buy, like the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. And maybe that neat Game&Watch machine. And also Super Mario Bros 35, which is free-to-play so why not.
But then you stop and think about the history of Nintendo and special merch like this. That Super Mario Bros Game&Watch machine is going to be obscenely rare, and will quickly skyrocket in price on eBay and whatnot. So I’ve already convinced myself that I actually don’t care about it and that I’m not even going to bother trying to buy one. It’s unfortunate because the consumer whore in me is hurting, but the reality is that there’s really no need for it anyway. I’m better off without. I already have many avenues through which to play Super Mario Bros.
I’m also completely perplexed by the idea that Nintendo is only going to be selling Super Mario 3D All-Stars for six months. And then it’s gone. Into the Disney vault, as they say. I could understand a short run on physical cartridges, but the digital version too? It’s an incredibly weird choice. But it doesn’t really affect me because you know I’m picking that collection up on day one anyway.
The thing that really, truly makes me grumpy is that Super Mario Bros 35 is going to be a limited time only thing. I know that nothing lasts forever, and that I should focus on enjoying it while it’s around, but I just can’t understand why Nintendo wouldn’t choose to support this awesome idea for more than a few months. I could absolutely see myself picking it up for a run or two every so often like I do with Tetris 99, but it is not meant to be.
So, grumps aside, I’m really happy that I’ll be able to play Super Mario 64 on yet another machine. That is, after all, the true meaning of life.
I’m a well-known not-fan of the God of War series of video games. In all fairness, I’ve only played the first game. But I feel that when you quit a game halfway through because you’re not getting anything from it, it’s fair to just skip the sequels. However, after some light prodding by my brothers, I recently began playing the most recent game in the series, Dad of Boy.
While it bothers me once in a while that it feels very generic because it’s a Triple-A game and it does all the things that every Triple-A game must (Skill trees! Colour-coded loot! Armor crafting! Endless checklists! Murder milestones!), I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying it. It has so many elements that I like that the original God of War either didn’t fully deliver on, or was missing completely. I don’t know if any of the games in between would satisfy me in the same way, but I don’t really see myself going back for them anyway.
