Game Diary 15/7/2019: Vampyr sucks and Infinite possibilities

Dear Diary; I have finally quit Vampyr. I did uninstall it last week, but I foolishly relented, like a partner with self esteem issues letting their useless, incoherent and wanky other half back in the house. I stupidly thought that I will push through the bugs, the relentless load screens, the piss poor balancing issues and the general mundane nature of the game and claim my reward for completion. I doubled down, leveled up a bit (so I was only eight levels below the mobs instead of 11) and stuck to exploiting the AI and legging it from one objective to the next. (If you've not played Vampyr, fighting the mobs is pointless as they give next to zero experience, great idea when you're surrounded by the bastards).
I encountered two problems with my 'rush to the end' tactics, firstly: mob levels jumped from 30 to 35 (not 31, 32, 33 etc, straight to level 35) and in the game's final act (which has you on another annoying fetch quest before the final boss) the areas are chocked full to the brim with Priwen Hunter mobs. Who kill me in 2 to 3 hits. 

Now, people reading this may think to themselves, "you fool! You're underleveled what'd you expect, a walk in the park?" To which I counter point them to fact that I was being a good Vampyr, just like the protagonist acts in the story. I didn't feast, or rather embrace the local population which is where the game loads you with experience, to the point the game is pathetically easy. Dr Reid is supposed to be a nice Vampyr though, but playing the game in this way puts you at a huge experience point disadvantage. The game does warn you beforehand that it will be difficult, but being between 15 and later 10 levels below all mobs and bosses is a bit fucking steep. And it isn't canonical correct, you play the hero, the Doctor come Vampyr who helps humans along with another human sympathetic vampire rid London of a plague. It makes no sense, I'm being punished for playing to character, when really I should of played it like a psychopathic serial killer. "Oh yes Lady Ashbury, let's save the people of London!" then close the door behind me and brutally murder ten people, decimating the immediate populace, only to finish my objective and return to Lady Ashbury, letting her know how good I am that I'm saving London, what horse shit! I have never played a game that basically says "fuck you if you want to stick to character, you will have to die constantly and sit in front of a 50 second load screen a hundred times".

To say Vampyr has upset me with it's time wasting design is understatement. I stabbed at my Xbox Controller with absolute glee, UNINSTALL. I felt good. Very good.

Moving on from that, it was my birthday last week and I was gifted with a plethora of lovely new games which has further fueled my complacency. I decided to start with Bioshock Infinite on the Xbox One. It does look pretty good in a higher resolution at 60 FPS. I started the Burial At Sea DLC first, and whilst the first DLC was a tad boring the second had more plot intrigue but I didn't gel with the move to stealth gameplay. So bang straight back into the main game and wow, it really has aged well. I haven't played Infinite for years so this is almost like playing it again for the first time only with the ability to spot the tells, which on an initial playthrough make sense. The Luteces go from the odd couple playing odd games to the odd couple having fun whilst exploring multiverses. Sorry if I spoiled the game for anyone, but that previous sentence still most likely makes no sense and you really shouldn't have waited this long to play such an amazing game. 

I did dabble into the first level of Devil May Cry 5 and was pleasantly reassured with the classic DMC formula being as smooth and enjoyable as it had all those years ago. I did eventually really like the reboot, but nothing beats the way a Japanese developer approaches action games. 
I have Breath of Wild on standby but my children have me playing Mario Maker 2 and Yoshi's Crafted World, so I'm set for entertainment.
Game Pass released Dead Rising 4 as well but after playing for a couple of hours I actually found it a bit boring. No timer, psychopaths have a diminished role and wafer thin cast of characters with matching wafer thin personalities really made playing a struggle. The only thing intact is the zombie slaying, but it is a means to an end and I get bored slaying hordes of zombies when there is no other substance to sustain me.

Well, that about wraps up my week. Time to dash, got a prophetic jaffer to deal with!