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August 2023 Channel Update – Everybody Did, In Fact, Expect the Inquisition (Patreon)

Published:
2023-08-27 00:56:21
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Hi all,

Apologies for the late-ish post! It’s been A Month and I am just. Wow. Okay. And the big gaming block in September/October hasn’t even rolled around yet. 💀 Let’s get started!!

TL;DR

  • Finished: OXENFREE II, Viewfinder, FF16, Miles Morales, Stray Gods
  • Ongoing: Telltale Expanse, DAI
  • Upcoming: me crying at all the upcoming releases


Finished Since Last Update

OXENFREE II: Lost Signals (7 parts): It retains the very fluid and life-like conversations from the first game, but I think the happenings and cast were not as memorable. Still enjoyable - I liked that it felt tonally more mature than the first, which may be a reflection of the writers themselves maturing over the years too, with the first game having been seven years ago.

Viewfinder (6 parts): Fun puzzle game that plays with optical illusion-like concepts! I think it’s worth experiencing alone for the whole take-a-pic-and-superimpose-it-onto-the-world mechanic. The narrative not a huge thing to write home about but getting to see the different ways to play with the mechanic kept me wowed throughout. It’s short and sweet if not a little on the easy side.

Final Fantasy XVI (53 parts): The initial world setting and characters are interesting and there’s cool cinematics, but there are some critical, experience-affecting issues with the rest of the game. It feels like the flashy main missions were done by one team and the rest was cobbled together by another with a far smaller budget. Even as a completionist I would have to recommend new players to stick to main missions and forgo the rest. (I go in-depth about why I feel this way in the last part of the let’s play, but there are spoilers of course.)

Spider-Man: Miles Morales (17 parts): Skipped out on this at launch but now using it to get ready for Spider-Man 2 in October! Fantastic and lovingly made from gameplay to narrative. There’s a few story contrivances (why won’t anyone just slow down and communicaaaate) but nothing big enough to bother me. Just the right amount of collectibles and optional challenges to make use of the extremely fun swinging around. I wish every AAA game was like this!

Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical (7 parts): A Telltale-style choose-your-own-adventure game with a musical twist: your choices influence the songs that play throughout. I’m a sucker for musical stuff so this was an immediate sell, the Greek God characters + murder mystery + well-known voice actors were just the icing. It’s written by David Gaider, one of the lead writers on Dragon Age, and it shows: there’s a lot of thought into small worldbuilding details, and the romance options are fantastic as well.

And a first look:

Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood: By Deconstructeam (whose Red Strings Club I previously played) – it’s a 2D pixel art game telling the story of an exiled fortune-telling witch looking to make a comeback with the help of a demonic (??) pact. Its very cosmic witchy aesthetic will really vibe with certain people I think. The main gameplay looks to be about getting to know the characters on a deeper level via tarot cards and fortune telling, and some choices made in the beginning make me curious about what’ll happen later on too. I liked what I saw, but tbh all the text reading even just in this first hour took a lot out of me 😭


Current Stuff

The Expanse: A Telltale Series: By Deck Nine, the people who made Life is Strange: Before the storm/True Colors. Five-episode sci-fi adventure based on the The Expanse TV show (which is based on the book series). I was already a fan of the TV show but I think it’s easy enough to pick up for people unfamiliar with the setting too. Currently three of the five episodes are out - they’ve been engaging but quite short (~ 1-1.5 hrs/episode).

Dragon Age: Inquisition: Finally getting to the last of the trilogy! It’s a rocky start technically with the EA App + modding + the DA:I application itself being all sorts of incompatible (by which I mean I’ve spent close to 10 hours just getting all the settings right), but I’m reasonably confident I’ll still have fun with the narrative. I’m unsure how long of a series this is gonna be though HLTB.com tells me this is the longest DA game yet. (You might’ve noticed the DAI videos are little longer on average than the DA1 and DA2 ones – my small way of trying to make the series go a little faster!)


Upcoming Stuff

My main priority atm is in making sure the DAI series runs smoothly. After that though, not much else is set in stone. It’s always improv central around here 🤷💀

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been making a huge splash and lots of you asked me about it. I’d love to do a series, but I don’t think now is the right time with DAI around (both are long + with the similar medieval-ish vibes). I’d like to do a first look to confirm if it’s something I’m interested in though. I hear the hype and all, but I don’t have ANY experience with D&D nor CRPGs to really know for sure.

Some other loose thoughts on where I’m at mentally with the upcoming releases (subject to change):

  • Sep 1: Starfield (early access): very likely I will do a first look, though I’m very unsure about a full series if it’s going to be another 100+ hr game. For a longer game like this I’m tempted to check it out for more than just for an hour, but I don’t know how to justify it beyond a first look lol – I don’t want to be like 5 hours in and end up leaving people hanging...!
  • Sep 26: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty: this is a must-play for me, but CDPR loves their long DLCs/expansions so I may have to push back when to start it depending on length (+ whatever else I’m playing around the time).
  • Oct 20: Spider-Man 2: also a must-play. I don’t expect this to be ungodly long so I should get to it on release no problem.
  • Oct 24: Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: I’m excited about this series, but it’s a re-release of an series that’s been available for a long time, so it’s not as high on the priority list. My initial excitement has also been dampened by the reports of max 1080p/60fps – worried about the general quality of these ports.
  • Oct 27: Alan Wake 2: okokok here’s the plan. I’m totally gonna finish Spider-Man in a week and get to this right on time…. right…?????

…. Yeah, looking at this really just tells me I should be trying to expedite DAI ASAP to get ready for the rest!!!!

If you’d like, feel free to share what you’d be most interested in seeing out of all these – or even anything else I haven’t listed here. (There’s a few indie things I’ve been eyeing too.) I will loosely take it into account when shifting around priorities.

Unrelated to Everything Else

With Twitter (excuse me, X) dying and all, I've gotten some asks with any plans I have with being on other social media platforms. At the moment I'm still mainly going to be at Twitter, but I did make a repository for all my links and will jump ship to whichever one of these ends up being the "winner": https://linktr.ee/welonz 


That’s it for now! Hope your summer’s been good, and let us all survive the incoming onslaught of Good-Ass Video Games 🤝

Cheers,
Welonz

Comments

Jonathan B.

I know 'reading out loud for long periods of time' isn’t your cup of tea, but I highly recommend experiencing 'Citizen Sleeper' and 'I Was a Teenage Exocolonist' either on the channel or in your free time. Both received near universal acclaim when they were released last year, with rich narratives and role playing opportunities. Lack of voiceover aside, they’d be perfect fits for the channel imo. Other that that, I’m definitely excited for your playthrough of 'Alan Wake 2'. Here’s hoping the story and characters have more depth than 'Control' did. 😬

Thomas Mc

The amount of video games is staggering... I just preloaded Starfield (100GB) and already needed a rest due to exhaustion 💀 Metal Gear Solid would be the LP I would be most excited for, but totally understand possible technical nonsense the port may have / create for videos. The game content itself is a lot fun with it oozing "stuff I think Welonz would like" nonsense.

riche

I would like to see you play Baldur''s Gate 3 one day, and Starfield looks promising for now, we will see how good story will be. Don't think there is much sense in doing a first look of games like those where you spend 30-40 min just on character creation especially if there is a chance that you will do full Let's Play one day.

Andreas Tremere Waya

Just a warm up for October! There are another 100 releases! BG3 you would love and enjoy! Yet bambilion of reading and alternatives makes it very LP of own caliber and even without DnD knowledge you would have a blast! With all those games around You! Keep Yourself safe and sound. Pace up things to Your likings. Figure out first what you are expected to do at your new job post :D and no stresses ! Enjoy the rest of the warm days!

Mads

Most looking forward to Metal Gear being on the list there (never been through the series myself and getting old games on the channel is always a treat!) - possibly Spider Man 2 as well. Baldur's Gate 3 might be an interesting first look, but I feel like the combat system and general setup of the game makes it one of those games that doesn't lend itself well to the video playthrough format.

Blue72

That's quite a lineup of games, but I'm probably most excited to see you play Alan Wake 2. It should be a lot of fun. Especially around the Halloween(ish) season. What I've seen of Baldur's Gate 3 looks really, really good. I'd be all over it myself if it weren't for Starfield coming up so soon. I know that's going to keep me busy for the rest of the year. If I had to pick the one let's play I'd most love to see some time in the future it'd probably be Red Dead Redemption. I just think it would be really interesting to see it from the perspective of someone that played RDR2 first and got to know the characters that way. No rush on that one though! There's so much amazing stuff out right now.

DanielW

Normally medieval fantasy isn't really for me and with those really long series like Dragon Age it find it hard to follow to the end. (sorry when ever I hit enter on my phone it saves the comment so no new lines). In theory I would be most interested in Starfield but that I will play on my one and because it is highly non linear and don't know how to watch it until I've finished it. Generally it might be worth looking into a way to make those long games into a shorter series of videos. (concentrate on main story and recommended side quests by your community or something or only post main missions on your channel (get a second channel for side content?) or cut them and only show highlights, not sure just thinking out loud. Maybe just separating the main content into extra Videos with a note in the title would allow viewer with less time to follow a series like Dragon Age). As I am not sure I can watch the long stuff I would like to see some shorter Indie things in between.

captain carrot

Baldurs Gate 3 has taken over my life since the premiere, so I would really love to see you play it. Especially viewing the game through the eyes of someone not familiar with crpgs might be interesting and give me a new perspective on some aspects I take for granted with these types of games. The mechancis are quite simple and intuitive, so I don't think you'd have any trouble despite your lack of experience with the genre.

Suaffle

The hype has made me tempted to try Baldur’s Gate 3, but I’ve never played any game like it before so kinda reluctant to jump in head on. Godspeed to you this fall!! 💀But in any case thank you as always for all that you do, and for the insightful posts!

Denis K.

I'm looking forward to your Alan Wake 2 let's play! We need to save poor Alan from the Dark Place, dammit! Cyberpunk DLC is also highly anticipated.

WallHammer

Starfield early access quick look is a exceptional idea, not only for fans, but to gather a bit of a new audience as well, to continue journey on a path to 100K subscribers. You could make a series out of it when there will be a lower density of premieres.

Jeffrey Hardy Quah
>>116184329

The problem is that the devs themselves say that the game doesn’t actually “get going until you finish the main quest” so a first look might not be the best idea for this game.

materwelonz
>>116126079

I'm actually even more worried about copyright issues - I know Konami has the cutscenes from the originals in the YT system, just waiting to ding any new uploads 💀 If none of that turns out to be issues though I am 50000% into it

materwelonz
>>116130143

Yeah that makes sense, although from this end I feel like it's very likely a game will just completely go by if I don't take at least take a quick peak to confirm my interest, esp for genres I'm not 100% sold on, which is an umbrella both Starfield/Baldur's Gate 3 fall under for me. I also have a few external considerations (e.g. if it's a review copy there's an expectation that I would take a look at it sooner rather than later)

materwelonz
>>116132823

I had been holding out on an actual remake but now with the half-hearted remaster I don't know if I should lose hope or not 🥲

Blue72
>>116132823

It's pretty sad. And the chances of ever seeing a PC release seem remote as ever. It's so bizarre to me how little care they have some of the bestselling and most beloved game series (GTA and RDR).

Michalis Pachitis

I am loving your Dragon Age series so far. I have played the games multiple times and always enjoy seeing new people playing them for the first time. It is actually how I found your channel and became a Patreon. Currently bingewatching your Mass Effect playthrough until new Dragon Age videos hit. Hope you are enjoying Inquisition, it can be a bit overwhelming at times with all the side quests, I hope you dont get burned out a bit. I look forward to seeing the whole playthrough. Wishing you all the best 🙂.

Daniel Hanley

I'm late to the DA:I party, but excited to get back to Thedas! Also intrigued by the prospect of BG3 -- I'm eager to try it myself and see an LP. I don't suppose you've played any of the Divinity games, also by Larian? I wanted to complete them before getting to BG3, and you might enjoy them. I just played through Divinity: Original Sin couch co-op with a patient friend -- probably the best way to experience them to be honest -- and it was a little silly but great fun. (It helped that we heavily modded the game: with various AI tools and a bit of reverse engineering, I made the characters look and talk exactly like us, which was absolutely wild.)

C L

Big update for August! Always enjoy your videos (never need TV!). On a side note, have you played Ni no Kuni before?

materwelonz
>>116570202

Nope, I haven't played *any* CRPGs before. Lol wow that AI stuff sounds like it would be amazingly immersive!!

Jin

Definitely understand the decision to shelve BG3 for now since DA:I is sooo big. I'm not sure if other people will agree but when you do get around to playing it, but I recommend playing at easiest combat difficulty because I'm playing on normal and the combat is sometimes too difficult and feels too long to the point that I wish I could skip it and get to the story already. And also quicksave before and after combats and talking to ppl :p I just watched Starfield and it was nice but like you said in the LP, it has a bit of a bland opening. Fallout is set in an apocalyptic wasteland for god's sake lol but still a Besthesda RPG I'd enjoy on my own time :) I'm enjoying the DA:I LP and I'm looking forward to your upcoming LPs!

Zischrot

Hello Wellonz, sorry for the late response :D A big list of games, indeed, 2023 is hell of a year for gaming. :) I also would really like to see you playing Baldur's Gate 3, especially because you would be a first time cRPG-player. It is always intriguing to watch someone new to a genre or game-series and how he/she sees and feels this new world. I would guess that the game would be quite something for you, as it has many different great stories and characters in its world, and a freedom in dialogs (and the world itself) like few other Games. But the best thing for a let's player or streamer is, that everything is voiced, so that you do not have to read a ton of text, like in the most other cRPGs. As for the combat system, I think it is one of most accessible cRPGs to date, you don't have to be frightend to get overwhelmed, like in Pathfinder: Kingmaker or Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (which are also really really great cRPGs). You also can switch the level of difficulty anytime with one click. When you start on the first of the three difficulties, you can easy and smooth lern how to play the game. I bet it would not take long until you would switch to normal difficulty. :D Really hoping to see you in BG3 one time. :) Have a good time Welonz, Greetings from Germany.

ElissaFae

As much as I would love to watch you experience it, I definitely recommend playing BG3 after finishing DAI. It has a beautiful big universe and lore, engaging story and wonderful characters and it deserves focus. I also recommend playing at the easiest difficulty to have the most of the story. Meanwhile I will continue to enjoy your other playthroughs. :)