Not long ago, I posted on this Reddit about my experience with Quest3 and PSVR2. I also shared it on other forums and general VR Telegram and Discord channels. I just wanted to highlight how surprised I am by the excessive hate towards PSVR2 and Sony in general, and how the message that Sony has abandoned the platform has taken hold, while there is absolute complacency with other manufacturers. Honestly, if we analyze the objective data, the hate is just pure hate with little foundation:

1. What other VR platform has had games like Gran Turismo, Horizon, Village, RE4 Remake, and other promoted games like Synapse in a year and a half? Absolutely none, and none even come close in quality. And that's in a year and a half.

2. Sony is Sony, and we already know how it works lately: information trickles, poor communication. I think there are users with totally out-of-place expectations. If for the PS5, with its millions of users, they barely release 2 exclusives a year and struggle to announce things in development, how can anyone think or expect that for such a niche market like VR, Sony could even maintain a similar pace to the normal PS5?

3. I see in the haters an absolute complacency with other brands. If Sony doesn't provide info, it's because they've abandoned the product, but if Meta suspends the gaming showcase, the same intentions are not attributed. When Quest3 reaches 1 year, it will have barely 1 exclusive (Batman) specific to Quest3 because Asgard's Wrath 2 is really a Quest2 game, a number inferior to Sony's. Will anyone say that Meta has abandoned the platform at that time with the same virulence as they do with Sony?

I am not a fortune teller nor do I know Sony's plans, but what I do know is that there are those who dedicate themselves to discrediting the device, turning their suppositions into absolute truths, and the objective reality does not support this. Even if Sony didn't release a single game more, something that absolutely no hater knows, the current catalog (and even more now with PC) is far superior to other platforms by a lot.

I have been on this earth 41 years and playing video games since I was 6. I've seen consoles come and go like dynasties.I've played every horror game you could imagine from Silent Hill to Res evil 4 remake and everything in between. Prior to this, Res evil 7 and Deadspace were my all-time favorite and IMO, scariest games. I went in with high expectations and can say with 100% confidence that Madison has blown even those games out of the water. This is seriously the only game that had me concerned for my health numerous times from the amount of pure fear and jumps this game provided. Please know that unlike many VR games, it's not just constant jumpscares. Where this game absolutely shines is the ambience of absolute terror and dread this game can instill. Going into the sewer.... turning the crank hearing about blue knees...these memories will haunt me until I die, packed neatly in my brain next to seeing the last scene in Sleepaway camp when I was 8 and had to sleep with the lights on for a month. Why did this review take so long? I bought this game on release day and would be lying if I didnt admit it took me longer to beat because I was too scared to go back in and progress further.IM A 41 YEAR OLD MAN WHO HAS SEEN REAL, HORRIBLE SHIT. Sure, they MAY make a game sometime, eventually that's AS scary, but there is no doubt in my mind that there is no other current piece of media that exists to this day that can instill fear into a human more than this. Did the voice acting sometimes get a bit odd? Sure. Did a glitch push me out to the start menu a few times at key parts that were annoying? Yep. Did I have issues grabbing stuff occasionally. Yeah. Doesn't fucking matter. Madison is a pure horror masterpiece that should be attempted by anyone that does not suffer a heart condition and owns a VR2. I honestly pity the horror enthusiast that does not have access to this tribute of horror. 10/10. Must buy.

The Foglands came out Oct 30th 2023 to terrible reviews after some very promising lead-up.

There's been patches since but not much commotion about it. Occasional "is it worth it now"?

I bought it on sale for $21 USD (from $35) a few weeks ago. A few days ago I fully completed the game with 22 hours put in.

I'm glad I bought it and played it.

But, recommending The Foglands is... complicated.

When Without Parole reviewed it (3.5/10) he felt that even if things were fixed, he wasn't sure there was something there worth saving.

I understand why he said that based on what he played, but I absolutely think there's a LOT worth saving.

The Foglands is an amazing game plagued by a mess of issues. It HAS been patched and many issues directly highlighted in that review were improved or fixed.

Still, there's bugs and issues galore, including with core mechanics. For example, throwing and melee mechanics featured in trailers are a mess, working sometimes, but too inconsistent.

But,

Foglands does a lot of things really, really, well. There IS a game here to salvage, in fact I think it could easily be a top 10 PS VR2 game by popular standard if it were polished up. The devs absolutely care about their game and ARE still working at it, though it's slow-going. I do think major issues can be fixed and the jank that's left will be comfortable enough.

We'll see. I'm not the dev and can't promise anything, but yes the devs are still working on it (a couple are active in their discord).

Right now it's a rough gem.

Lets get into the good stuff.

The Foglands has its own identity. It crosses familiar genres - roguelike, narrative adventure - but stands on its own feet as a unique game you've never played before. No, not because of the mess of issues! It's unique because it creates its own, excellently crafted world with a fleshed out and interesting narrative.

Writing for games is notoriously difficult and tends to be low quality. Not so with The Foglands. This is a fleshed out story with characters, atmosphere, and emotion that develop. And world building.

For example what starts as your kind of typical male protagonist stereotype, "Jim", actually develops. Jim has character, he gives off kind of neurodivergent vibes (just wait until the, uh... 'romance' 🤣), he learns things and expresses opinions. That concept of starting with the familiar and breaking out of it is part of the narrative development. Starting with a 'western approach' and then questioning it. I really liked that! And like any good sci-fi (in my opinion), it has parallel to our real world issues and experience.

All this comes along with excellent voice acting and music bringing characters and scenes to life.

The game takes its time unfolding, which is a separate challenge in terms of player retention, but not a bad thing. The environments you start out in are good but nothing that will turn your head. An odd decision to change lighting during frequent fade-to-black loading in the first biome doesn't help first impressions either... But the lighting is great, something that only becomes more apparent as the game progresses.

As you get into the game and make progress the world starts to feel bigger. All the environments look good but some look gorgeous. It's a game with moments where you just pause to look around and take in the space. There's also some rooms that will show up when you feel like you've seen it all that make the world feel bigger and provide a feeling of environmental storytelling and development.

Characters, creatures, bosses, all have great designs that feel like they belong to The Foglands.

Also, although gameplay mechanics have a mess of issues, the gameplay design is really great - it just doesn't get to fully manifest because of the issues. There are some unique and really cool and fun upgrades, including an 'affinities' tree that many players don't realize exists because it's never pointed out. You can get electrical arcs shooting through enemies as you hit them, ghost punches that look frikin badass... and actually work pretty well once you get them, in contrast to prior melee options.

So,

do I recommend The Foglands?

Look, there's games with bugs and jank, that don't significantly impact the experience in the grand scheme of things. This is NOT that. The Foglands has bugs and jank encountered often and impact some core mechanics.

(Edit: I want to point out someone in the comments who played 15 hours - and still going - barely felt affected by bugs at all. Valuable reminder how we're all affected differently. There are people who may barely notice or care about the bugs, just like there are people who may be extra-sensitive to them!).

HOWEVER.

As I adjusted to the issues, I DID start to have fun. In fact, I had lots of fun. There's fun gameplay, and I really enjoyed the narrative and how it all developed. I'm glad I played The Foglands.

It's a meaty game too. I'd guess it is completed in 15 hours for most players, and issues aside it was engaging throughout for me. (The first 50 minutes left me feeling overwhelmed by bugs and annoyances 😅 but that feeling did dissipate enough for me to really love this game).

My 22 hour play time I think is a bit inflated because I tried to experiment and catch bugs. That said I might be underselling the length, it might be a 20+ hour game for a lot of people, I just don't want to overshoot my guess. There's also a few more things for me to find if I want to spend some more time with it myself. And when issues are fixed I could see myself going back in for fun or replaying it.

But to have fun I also had to brave some frustrations and annoyances. I had runs frustratingly end prematurely due to various jank, and I had to learn to avoid the 'problem mechanics'.

The devs care. This is a genuine effort. The scope of this game is big... TOO big for the team evidently, but it's big because they are excited and passionate. This game is very immersive and fun when you have smooth runs without significant issue (it does happen, once you learn what to avoid). And patches are in the works.

So, I do recommend it, if you're comfortable paying essentially for early access.

It's like a gorgeous, full, house with a lot of character, but needing significant repair before you comfortably move in and invite friends.

If you can brave the mess, you can get a lot out of it playing through it now. Or if you just like the idea of supporting some cool devs, you can treat it like an early access investment to help them out.

Of course many won't be ready to buy it, and that's okay and understandable.

Ok. I've got one more section I want to write. For those of you who may buy it:

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A guide to enjoying The Foglands

AKA

A guide to avoiding the messy bits as much as possible

Break any of the breakable rules as you please, but keep in mind that every rule you break will make your ride bumpier 😅

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1. You CANNOT hold your weapon with both hands. Just how it is. Should be changed, but you'll adjust.

2. Only use the standard, free, pistol (Vulture) for your weapon (or dual wield two of them!). If you want to switch things up, go with the machine gun or shotgun. Shotgun causes minor frame drops but works fine. Machine gun has minor reloading bugs but is loads of fun as it gets powerful. Avoid the "sniper"-ish weapon (Whisper). Avoid melee. Avoid throwing. Except when you are strapped for ammo (doesn't usually happen if you explore) or you have the card perk that reloads your gun upon throwing it at a target. Remember, break these rules at any point,.. there is fun to be had with melee and throwing, but they ARE prone to bugs so I recommend staying away until you've got momentum and the game has its hooks in you.

3. Smash boxes and such with your gun in hand, rather than trying to punch them with your bare fist. Easier, comfier. Collision can be a tad messy but once you get the hang of it, smashing boxes becomes comfy.

4. Use your first runner key to unlock Runner room 1 at the electronic lockers (requiring your palm print) in the hub. And in general unlocking the rest of the runner rooms is valuable both for gameplay and for story (but some card unlocks are lots of fun too!). When you unlock cards at these lockers, the cards get added to the pool of cards you can find during a run.

5. During a run, open the menu and check the left page, and the right page (center page is the regular menu). On the right page you'll find the cards you've picked up in a run (from purple chests). On the left page you'll find the 'affinities' tree. These skills are automatically acquired during a run (and reset each run), as you accumulate the accordingly suited cards. For example, acquire 6 "hands" cards and you'll reach the top tier upgrade of ghost punches! (They are cool as hell and effective for some fights).

6) Time-slow triggers when you deal a bunch of damage rapidly. Some things trigger it more easily than others. Your hands tend to go kind of haywire during time-slow so don't worry about using it effectively. You'll probably miss most shots you take during time-slow. Just enjoy the slowmo ride and don't worry about it 😁

7) There are a few intentionally op (overpowered) cards. If a card sounds op it probably is. Go for it!

8) The game/story does not end when you complete your first full run. Keep going!

9) Grenades aren't very effective vs enemies but obliterate your hp. Don't use grenades and don't use trip mines and don't bother trying to kill enemies with exploding barrels. DO be very wary of the enemies that throw grenades, they can instakill you early in the game. Also all explosions have a damage radius larger than the vfx and will hit through walls. BE. WARY. OF. GRENADES. Don't try to throw them back, just get space from them.

10) There are bugs and issues and you will notice plenty.

11) DO explore, DO engage with the world, DO take your time, and DO talk to characters as much as you can! There's a great game here that some people will fall in love with. ❤️

12) If you're confused about anything or just wanna talk about it, there's a discord server. The community manager is friendly, and a couple other people who've enjoyed it are there, including myself (Mara on discord).

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Foglands is a rough gem. A wonderful home in need of notable repairs.

But it IS a gem, a bright and wonderful one. ✨

I don't say this frivolously! There is a full and original narrative adventure game here, packaged in fun roguelike gameplay.

Support it if you dare! 😁 I'm glad I did!

How is Horizon Worlds doing?

I live in a country where Horizon is not available and I am too lazy to try to get it working with a VPN.
Through a glitch in the demo, I got to visit some of the worlds (without meeting other people though). It felt extremely "polished" in comparison to VRChat, and I mean that in both a positive and negative way.

This got Horizon back on my radar and now I am curious:

1. How often do you use it?

2. What do you like about it?

3. What do you dislike about it?

4. Do you feel the community to be rather dead or alive?

5. Overall, how does the experience compare to VRChat for you?

Curious to hear your thoughts!

is it just me or do a lot of the kids sound the same on this game? like literally sound the same, voices wise? Every game I go to there's kids with distinct voices I've heard in several others, from different people. Has anyone else noticed this?

Que juegos juegan con gamepad o joystick, que el resto juega con teclado y mouse, o al revés, que juegan con teclado y mouse, que el resto juega con gamepad o joystick.

En mi caso juego CRPG como Divinity Original sin 1 y 2, Pathfinder Kingmaker y Wrath of the righteous con gamepad, se que tardo mas tiempo en muchas cosas pero me encanta jugar con mi gamepad de Xbox One en la PC