New Tales from the Borderlands: Review

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I love Tales from the Borderlands, I mean the first one. I have played it through too many times to count. I love everything about it, from the music to the story and humor. 

I had read all the bad reviews and comments about New Tales from the Borderlands, but of course I had to check it out myself. But I couldn't get it from the library because someone had stolen it. After a very long time I finally decided to request that the library get a new copy, but someone else had beat me to it.

While playing through the first episode I nearly fell asleep. Is this game really that boring? Probably.

 

 

Characters 

Anu is annoyingly anxious scientist. Octavio is her annoyingly stupid little brother. Fran owns a yogurt shop, and suffers from sweet rage syndrome.

But the best new character is... the sexy intern.

 

 

Out of the old characters Rhys is most prominently present. Fiona makes an appearance in the end. And Marcus of course narrates the whole thing. 

 

Robots 

And of course there are some robots, which once again are more interesting and entertaining than the humans. But of course they can't be as great as Gortys and Loader Bot in the original game, nor as Claptrap in the main series. No offence, Louie.

 

 

Endings 

Unlike the original, this new game has missable trophies, and many different endings. I was so pissed that I managed to get a good ending, but not the best one. There's no way I'm gonna play this again, especially when guides dictate every dialogue option, and still people comment that "this didn't work for me". 

 

  

Animals 

Juniper is Paco's little ratch, who helps to find the vault. Unfortunately she can get killed, if the relationships between the playable characters aren't good enough. So that's even more reason to keep choosing friendly conversation options.

 

 

The best part: Kicking a skag puppy warrants a death penalty. I loved it! 

 

 

 

New Tales from the Borderlands: Gameplay

 

 

Resident Evil Requiem: Return to Raccoon City

"Tom Cruise and the Crying Woman" 

When Resident Evil Requiem (affiliate link) was finally announced, I was interested in a Resident Evil game for a first time in a long time for some reason. RE7 and RE8 didn't interest me, of those I only played the RE7 demo, which was disgusting. I only played through RE2 Remake once, even though Claire Redfield is my favorite game character. I didn't want to play RE3 Remake at all, even though it was on console. The only exception to the most recent ones has been RE4 Remake, which I managed to play through several times.

Why did I want to play Requiem? There are actually two reasons for that. The return to Raccoon City, and the option to choose a third-person perspective when playing. If this had been a 1st-person game like RE7, for example, I wouldn't have played it.

I reserved the game from the library, and it took a month and a half from the release date to get to the first reserver, which was me.

 

 

Resident Evil Requiem

Grace, the daughter of Resident Evil Outbreak's Alyssa Ashcroft, works for the FBI. For some strange reason, her boss sends her alone to investigate the hotel where Grace's mother was killed years ago.

Meanwhile, Leon S(exy). Kennedy suffers from the effects of the tea virus, and of course gets involved in the events.

 

 

Raccoon Cityn Ruins

For me, the highlight of the game was the return to Raccoon City, and specifically to its police station.

 

 

When the familiar music started to play...

 

 

Leon is still welcome, 28 years later.

 

 

I had tears in my eyes when I found the same photo of S.T.A.R.S. at the police station as in the original Resident Evil 2 game.

 

 

Spoiler: Tofu has survived in the ruins of Raccoon City for decades. That's what a true survivor is!

It's certainly unrealistic how much of Raccoon City remains in this game.

 

 

Grace Ashcroft 

Grace is like Ashley 2.0. I hate how helpless and insecure Grace is. What if we reversed the gender roles sometime?

 

 

The worst part is that the game doesn't try to scare you, it tries to make you vomit. The amount of gore and blood in Requiem is disgusting. This trend has been seen in Resident Evil games since at least RE7. And why the hell do the characters have to curse all the time? I already complained about it in RE2 Remake.

Unfortunately for me, Resident Evil Requiem has no replay value. The first (and last) playthrough took me just under 13 hours, and I was pretty lost at times.

 

 

Cats? 

But Resident Evil Requiem also has cats. At least in a painting that I managed to miss, of course, even though I tried to look for it. Does anyone have a screencap of Resident Evil Requiem's cat painting?

 

Resident Evil Requiem: Letters from 1998 

And in letters. These letters are only available in the deluxe version of the game, boo. Marvin's daughter Meryl used cat-themed stationery to write to her mother.

 

 

 

Crimson Desert: Cat adoption guide

How much I hate this game.

Too difficult boss fights even on the easiest difficulty, puzzles and quests that don't tell what to do, not to mention the constant bugs. Crimson Desert (affiliate link) is a game that doesn't hold the players hand. Some players love having to do things the hard way. Some hate that they have to check online guides constantly to be able to advance in the game. 

But ranting aside, this post is about cats and how to get them in Crimson Desert. Earlier I posted about cat armies in Crimson Desert. I played the game only because of its cats, and this guide has everything I learned about getting cats.

 

 

Crimson Desert: Cat taming guide

Cats (and other animals) are everywhere in this game, you'll have no problem finding them from early on. You can carry cats around and pet them, but that only gets you so far in bonding with them. 

 

 

If you are in a hurry to make a cat your own like I was, your best bet is to feed them legendary fish. But where to find legendary fish?

 

 

 

Crimson Desert: Legendary Golden Carp location

The first step towards adopting a cat fast is to feed them their favorite food. Cats like fish, especially the legendary ones. I first went for the legendary golden carp in chapter 2. It's a dangerous and difficult journey that early in the game, but if I could do it, you can do it. In this gameplay stream I make the journey to the golden carp successfully.

Legendary golden carp waits for you in north, in Silver Wolf Mountain area (around red marker on the map). 

 

 

You don't need a fishing pole for catching legendary fish. Just wait for the fish to come near you, and then jump in the water to catch them. 

 

 

Crimson Desert: Cat not eating fish 

How to feed the fish to the cat? Some guides suggest to carry the cat to a peaceful location, and then putting it down on the ground. After placing the cat down it might run away, so follow it. Discard the fish in front of the cat. Once the cat eats the fish you get maximum 100 bonding with it, and the cat is yours.

Pro tip: Carry the cat somewhere where there are no other cats. Discard the fish first, and only after that drop the cat. This way the cat is most likely to eat the fish, instead of running away from you. 

 

 

 

Crimson Desert: Cat ride on shoulder

How to make your cat ride on your shoulder? Crouching helps with that, but how to make the cat to stay on your shoulder permanently?

 

 

You need the pet tutorial for that, but how to get it? You have to advance enough in the main story. In chapter 4 faction quest The Nag and the Stubborn One becomes available, and can be started from your camp by talking to Andrew. 

 

 

In this questline you have to adopt a dog, and reach bonding level 100 with it. Just pet it, feed it lean meat (available from a local shop) and go to sleep. I had to sleep only once for 12 hours (on the nearby blacksmith's bed, upstairs from him), then I fed the dog again and reached bonding level 100.

 

 

When you finally get the full use of Sigil of Bonding (scroll down for instructions on how to get it), your cat will stay on your shoulder even during some more rough movements like running, rolling, riding, swimming and flying. 

 

 

But sadly the cat will always disappear when the player enters a cutscene, or just talks to an NPC. Boo!

 

 

 

Crimson Desert: Cat town location

Pororin village is located south, in Hernand Highlands. This town is full of cats, and shai children. 

 

 

To be able to enter the village you first have to do a couple of quests. Here's a guide if you need one.

 

 

You can buy costumes for your cats from the village's shop. These are for cosmetic purposes only, they do not act as armor. 

 

 

In Pororin village there's a secret shop. Travelling merchant Lacey sells earlier mentioned Sigil of Bonding, which makes your cat to follow you. But making this merchant spawn might be difficult, it's totally RNG. It took me a long time to make her appear. Some people say she's most likely to spawn on mornings. She walks around the village streets in a circle, just like the other shais with heavy loads on their shoulders. If she's not around, just teleport away and back.

 

 

If you have done everything in this guide, and all cat related activities still don't work properly, just save and reload. That worked for me. 

 

Copycat video game review (PS5)

Copycat (affiliate link) is a sad little game about terrible people who abandon their cats. It made me hate people even more than I already did. If you can't cope with people neglecting animals, don't play this game.

 

I played Copycat on my late cat Tabitha's birthday, so I chose to play as a black and white cat in memory of her. There are six different cats to choose from.  

 

 

Copycat game story

Olive is an old, sickly woman, freshly out of hospital. Her cat Dawn is missing. So in her wisdom she decides to adopt a similar looking cat from a shelter, and names also her Dawn. 

 

 

So what happens to the copycat when the original cat returns home? 

If you adopt a cat from a shelter you can't just abandon it if your previous, missing cat comes back home.  

Listen, lady. If you are old and sick you can't take a pet. Unless you have a system with someone to check every day that you are still alive. Otherwise there's a risk that you'll die, and because of that your beloved pet dies of starvation. Unless they eat your corpse of course.

 

 

The lesson of this game is that people who don't like cats are also murderers.

Copycat endings 

Which ending would you choose? Living as a stray cat, or go back to the people who have abused you? Is there a happy ending to this game? You can view Copycat's both endings here.

 

 

Copycat game: How long to beat?

My first playthrough lasted for 3 hours, so it's a short game. Copycat was made by a small Australian studio of only two people. 

 

 

Copycat gameplay: Full game