Week of 13 Apr 2025
“Don’t take any wooden nickels.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Palworld
- Alone in the Dark
I put a good bit of time in completing Palworld by Tuesday, mostly focusing on Monday in running around the map and clearing out what I can. See, when I booted up the game the week prior to check out the new content, my map progress had again been erased. I don’t know if just the visual representation of my map or the actual coverage I’d gotten was erased, but it still was bad timing with a new achievement for visiting 70 locations. I explored almost all of the original Palapagos Isle and Sakurajima before it finally popped. Definitely helps to have a fast-flying Pal like Xenolord to speed the traversal. That was most of the evening, but now it was time to attempt the difficult achievement of this batch: taking down an attack chopper. Even with all the sliders on your side, the enemy oilrigs can still prove to be a challenge, and to cause the chopper to spawn you have to reach the caged treasure chest. I had read up on a bunch of strategies on how to survive the attack, but… nah I just hid in a small building and played peek-a-boo. I almost ran out of ammo, it was so close! After that it was even more idling, this time at the Pal Labor Research Laboratory. A couple hours and I was done! Again. And with a huge content update on the horizon, I’m sure I’ll be returning in due time.
Achievements unlocked: 44 (+5) | Completed
This chopper can just wait while I finish this dance.
April is marching right along, so I figured I’d do my 2024 game that suffered from public opinion or was missed for the month. Alone in the Dark, the newest entry in the classic franchise, released last year to almost a universal “Huh?”, which is surprising given the pedigree and acting talent. It’s also a pretty good horror game, adding some Southern flavor to the gothic nightmare Emily (Jodie Comer) and Edward (David Harbour) find themselves embroiled in. Funny, this is the second big game I’ve played this month with the American South being part of the vibe. Anyway, they’ve arrived at Derceto outside New Orleans to find Emily’s uncle after receiving an ominous letter. Of course nothing is as it seems, yadda yadda, but you can play through the game as either protagonist and have access to different endings, with Chapter 4 being almost exclusively unique to each character. Annoyingly, there are collectibles exclusive to each as well, but since you have to do two playthroughs anyway a good plan will keep it to only those two. And they carry over between playthroughs! The story is well-written and interesting, and the gameplay isn’t too bad, as you switch between puzzles and some hectic combat, so it’s a shame the presentation is fairly lacking. First off, even on my Series S the game struggles in Quality mode, and switching to Performance mode almost makes it look uglier than an Xbox 360 game. Even worse, the game crashed multiple times when the action on screen got too hectic (like during pivotal cutscenes). I obviously found my way around these issues, but I shouldn’t have to, y’know? Not a bad game at all, but definitely my least favorite of this series I’m doing. So far.
Achievements unlocked: 38 (+38) | Completed
I don’t think I’m in Louisiana anymore…
Rarest Achievement:
No Fly Zone in Palworld [20.28]
Most Common Achievement:
Welcome to Derceto in Alone in the Dark [1.00]
