muladhara | Entries tagged with ian higton

So over the past couple of days, I watched Ian from Eurogamer* play a game on his channel called Still Wakes The Deep.

It is a game set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland. Everything is fine, until it isn't. And it's way better than that sounds, but I can't say any more without spoiling.

I recognise a bunch of actors who are in it, and it's awesome to have a game mostly full of Scottish accents, imo!**

Ian started off playing like, "Wouldn't it be cool to spend twenty four hours on an oil rig? Just looking around and stuff?" And I was all nope, nope, nope, absolutely not, because I have always been convinced that rigs are terrifying places because they're in the middle of nowhere, on the sea.

(I later found out that the reason for me thinking this was probably the Piper Alpha disaster, which happened when I was seven. I don't remember it happening with any clarity, but I dare say I have heard a lot about it in the years since).

Suffice to say, by the end of the game, Ian had changed his mind about whether he wanted to be on an oil rig or not.

But anyway, I'm glad I watched it - I was in two minds whether or not to, because I didn't know what it was about - but it proper spooked me out. I made the mistake of watching the first part before I went to bed one night, and then last night I woke up sweating (because I'm still ill), and my mind immediately started thinking about stuff that had happened in it.

I might have to watch it again, or watch someone else play it (I kind of hope Johnny will, but I don't think that's going to happen), because I think it will be interesting to watch the story unfold now I know what happens.

It's not often a game messes with my head this much - the last time I remember it happening was when Johnny streamed The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, which left me feeling much the same way, but for very different reasons.

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*I suppose I ought to give him his own tag; I watch enough of his stuff to warrant it.

**There is also one (1) Irishman, one Yorkshireman, and one Londoner. And afaik, those are their actual accents - the Yorkshireman's definitely is.

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I have done it! I have beaten the PSX version of FFIV! \o/

It took, imo, way too much grinding (everyone was low to mid sixties in levels) BUT it only took me five attempts to beat Zeromus, so ??? I guess it worked out okay in the end?

I got all the top tier weapons except for the lance guarded by the Plague Horror, since I think that would require ridiculous amounts of grinding for damage output to best the Doom spell it casts. I know there are strats to beat it at expected levels, but I just could not be bothered.

But anyway! I beat the game, and that is all that matters!

And then I swapped out my PS2 for my PS3 and finally started Ni no Kuni. Or, rather, I did after: the PS3 updated; Sony told me I needed a new, randomly generated password in a very frustrating, badly worded way; and then the game itself needed to install to the HD so I could listen to the JP voice track.

All of which took 45 minutes or thereabouts in total, and I was already tired and thus not amused.

I have no particular thoughts about it so far, as I am less than an hour in. I'm not sure I like the 3D style of it, but I found that a bit weird about Pokemon Moon, as well. (It's just an imo; if it looks like a cartoon/anime/thing I am more familiar with in 2D, then it feels off seeing it in 3D. YMMV, of course).

Although, ( very early game spoiler )

I don't like Drippy's accent being phonetic in the subtitles when he says your and our, though, especially since he doesn't do it on any other word a Welsh person might pronounce differently to an English (or American) one. But I guess that's just a minor niggle.

I don't know if I will get the sequel, yet, although I probably will eventually because Ghibli aesthetics + RPG is a happy place I didn't know existed/I needed! (And I don't know why I put off playing it for so long, omg).

Also for reference, I'm playing the PS3 version, not the PS4 remaster. I don't know if there are any differences between them.

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In non-me game related stuff, I've been watching Ian from Eurogamer and Ellen from Outside Xtra playing Stray. Ian played the first three hours on EG's channel, but then finished it off in two streams on his personal channel. Ellen is way behind, but that's okay. I don't mind watching her take her time with it (not that Ian rushed through it, but she's certainly taken longer than he did to get where she's going, and that's okay).

It is not the game I thought it was going to be, but that's also okay. I like what it is (apart from certain few and far between sections). ( potential spoiler )

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I think that's all I've got for now, so I shall stop here and hit post!

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I updated my ko-fi shop, so now there are prints of stuff available, as well as original artworks! The prints are a mixture of some of my older and newer things, so check it out because there may be something you like in there!

There's also a blog post showing off the exclusive print you can get if you become a member during the rest of July/August. It was supposed to be July's exclusive print, but all month I've either been ill, or it's been too hot to get stuff done. So. I'm starting over AGAIN. (I say again, because you don't know this, but my ko-fi was supposed to be launched on the 1st of July, but I spent most of June feeling gross, so YAY).

So fingers crossed I can get this off the ground this time.

I also set up a facebook page for my art, but I don't know how often I'll update it. I'm going to set the sketchblog to autopost, like it does to twitter, but other than that, I don't know.

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In other news, I finally played some more FFIV! I did enough grinding to beat Bahamut on my first try, and then I went and also beat the White Dragon for Murasame! I haven't really got any further than that, but I know I'm very close to the end now. Will I beat Zeromus on the first go? PROBABLY NOT.

I also, for reasons that I couldn't fathom at first, felt like I wanted to watch a Silent Hill longplay. So I dug one out, except I switched it off after an hour because the ads were doing my head in (I think there was one every ten minutes? I may as well have been watching it on Twitch!) And then I looked through one of my tags on here, and it turns out the last time I watched a longplay was in July 2020! So no wonder I felt like I ought to watch it again :D

(I mean, I also wanted to watch it because it's one of the two games I have very strong nostalgic feelings for, and I'd already done OG RE2 a couple of months ago).

And I watched Ian from Eurogamer play Stray - he did the first three hours on EG's channel, but then did another two(?) on his personal channel, so now he's further ahead than Ellen is. He's going to play the rest tomorrow evening, I think (honestly can't remember what he said now). Anyway, cat game is good! I'm glad I'm watching other people play it because there's a few parts that are Not My Jam, and that I would hate doing, so I'm glad it's them doing it and not me. It is mostly a chill game, but there's just bits that make me anxious just watching it.

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I have no idea how to end this, so it's probably time to go and get the washing out of the washing machine.

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I bought and started taking glucosamine sulphate because I am sick of my joints hurting for what feels like most of the time. I don't know if it will help, but I thought I'd give it a try, as I can get tablets for relatively cheap, and see what happens.

I have thought over recent months that my joint problems are more tendon/ligament related than arthritis (though some of them defo are arthritis related, yaaaay), and that's what glucosamine is supposed to help with.

I did not expect the tablets to be the size of horse pills, however. You're supposed to take them with food, ideally, and I was feeling lazy when I had my tea last night and was all, "I can dry swallow this!", got one out of the bottle and then was like, "Ha, nope!"

I will go to the doctor eventually, but after being patronised last time I went wrt this problem (I saw a locum and she was Not Good), it kind of put me off. Also I don't know really what they can do for me, except prescribe me painkillers which may or may not work, depending on how my body is feeling at the time!

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I have been watching a lot of Eurogamer/Oxboxtra Deathloop stuff lately! And also listening to the soundtrack, because it's awesome.

I had never heard of/had absolutely no interest in this game until I watched Ian's stream of it the other day, and now I am totally on board with it! I mean, it's like someone made this game based off things I like! Except for the fact that it's a first-person shooter, but I'll live with that as long as someone else is playing it.

I ended up spoiling myself for the plot, because I don't think anyone is going to do a full playthrough - Ian has been playing some on his personal channel, and I've been watching it, but I think he'll probably do like he did with Returnal, and leave out some of the bigger plot stuff. But I don't think spoiling myself worked out badly? Now I want to know even more than ever how stuff fits together! (I could probably find an LP somewhere, but I want to see what my favourite people on yt are doing first).

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Here's some more of that Squeenix meme!

19. Is there any Square-Enix game that grew on you?

Oh for sure! Several of them, in fact!

FFXII is the easily the most memorable because, until I played that, I'd only played the turn-based games in the series, so I was unprepared for the live interaction with enemies. I didn't mind not having to wait for a fight to load, but I just. I prefer turn-based!

Also Nier, but that was because although I knew bullet hell games existed, it's not what I was expecting from this game. I don't know what I was expecting, but yeah, bullet hell wasn't it.

FFV! Like, I knew I liked it when I played the PSX version, but that version is just so bad, and the translation is awful (Salsa, anyone?). And then, this past year, I finally played the GBA version, and loved it! I think it was the first one I played with the job system, so that completely threw me for a loop as well.

20. Is there a Square-Enix game that's grown off of you? (i.e. you don't like it as much as you used to, for whatever reason)

Not really? I'm not as fannish about some of the games as I used to be, but I still like all the ones I like with the same level of intensity.

21. What Square-Enix series have you played? (even if you've not played the entire series)

Final Fantasy, obviously. Nier (one day I will play Automata for myself, but today is not that day). I played Dragon Quest VIII, but I didn't like it very much, and that's why I haven't played another one since (also unpopular opinion, but I don't like Akira Toriyama's art, so looking at it the entire time wasn't a fun experience for me).

EDIT: Also Kingdom Hearts, which I keep forgetting about, gdi! [/edit]

If we're talking Taito, then OBVIOUSLY Bust-A-Move!

And as for Eidos, as I mentioned previously, I've played OG Tomb Raider, and also one of the later ones, but I can't remember which (and I no longer own it so I can't check). I also have one of the more recent ones for my PS3 which I'll get to eventually.