Weekly Update 2026-04-19
Slightly less confused about gender
I had an extremely busy week outside of videogames and writing about videogames, I’m very tired, and on top of that, pretty much nothing noteworthy happened in the realm of videogames that I have any interest in talking about, so it’s a slim update today.
Game Releases and Updates
REPLACED release – this is one of those games that reached a certain threshold of pre-release hype that put the hipster in me off of it. I didn’t even bother downloading the demo for it during the most recent Next Fest because I knew literally every other person writing about Next Fest would be playing it that week, and they did. Good for them.
I also honestly wasn’t sold on the 2.5D gameplay with 3D environments, an art style I find conceptually ugly, and I haven’t enjoyed a modern Cinematic Platformer in years, unless you count Idosra. But I got it as a gift at release so I guess I’ll give it a shot. Not impressed so far. The first 20 minutes have been the exact sort of ‘hold right and try not to nod off’ thrill-a-minute gameplay that seems to really gel with a certain subset. Hopefully it improves, or at least fucking something happens within the next half hour. Don’t expect me to plow through this quickly or be primed to glaze it as much as everyone else because I’m already in a bad mood.
Cave Story+ console parity update – I actually put this on my notes last week, when the update was announced, but come Sunday I checked and the update itself was still in beta, so I pushed it back. I looked today and guess what? It’s still in beta. And I don’t really care THAT much, so I’m mentioning it now even though I’ve not gotten a chance to try it. What is it? An update to bring the 2011 Steam re-release of one of the most important indie games ever made the additional content that has only been available on some console ports, released later. And mod support, apparently.
Now, a lot of the visual updates only apply to the ‘modern’ graphics set, which I wouldn’t be using if I decided to replay this game anyway, and the other big feature is co-op, which I would not have an opportunity to play because I have no friends. So this whole thing is just a wash from top to bottom and I’m a little frustrated that I haven’t scrapped this entire section. That’s how little news there is this week.
The State of Games Played
My main outlet for gaming this week was finishing the endgame for The Myth of a Godslayer, and guess what? I beat it! I probably should’ve tried a little harder to get through this last year, but it was a busy month and a half after its Thanksgiving release, so I don’t feel too bad. I wound up doing enough of the moderately interesting side content, including two full optional dungeons, that I hit the level cap before facing the actual final dungeon, and was a bit too strong. I probably should have saved those for post-game.
I’ve finally made some significant progress in Esoteric Ebb, though there are still whole areas and characters I haven’t touched in my playthrough. It’s still consistently cracking me up, still thoroughly engaging, and still impressive in terms of writing and scenarios.
I’ve completed a few puzzles in Puzzling Places, in every mode available now, including the local co-op. There are still some rough edges, especially with the flatscreen experience, which in my opinion needs a lot more features and control options to even come close to the VR version. But it’s still better than anything like it I’ve tried.
It’s been a minute since I did a runthrough of Dark Souls, and earlier this week I decided to take a look and see what mods are still available for the Prepare to Die edition [pre-Remastered release] and after some debate, settled on downloading one called Shadow of the Eclipse. That’s right, Shadow of the E-, and I believe the naming technically predates the announcement of Elden Ring’s DLC. So someone’s getting sued, and I hope it’s FromSoft for locking perfect deflects behind Mogh.
Anyway, SotE is not the most overhaully of the overhauls I’ve tried for DS1, but it has enough subtle changes without going full Kaizo that I’ve been enjoying the shakeup. Changes include vastly expanded covenant content for singleplayer, boss tweaks, rearranged enemy and key item locations, and an expanded elemental imbuement system more in line with DS2. I’m over the hump now, Lordvessel in hand, and about ready to start seeing how the late game has been changed, hopefully mostly for the better. I mean, knock on wood, most of those areas can’t get any worse.
Writing
I didn’t have time to do any writing or even editing this week. Hopefully this week will be more relaxing and I’ll get to finish writeups for Gunlocked 2 and The Myth of a Godslayer at least.
Other
I’m gonna go back to bed.