Last Chalice

Hey everyone. I wanted to introduce myself & say hi to those I’ve known for years. I’m Bryan, I used to do a podcast/twitter called Sacred Icon for half a decade with a friend of mine. Last Chalice is just me, hoping to bring that passion back again. Its good to see you🤘🏻

@BlameItOnRyen Good point about optimization with UE5. I have to admit, I’ve assumed from moment zero this will be worse than the original. How could it be better than the original?

@lastchalice Optimization would be the first since its UE5. Also changes they make for whatever reason that could make it worse.

I’ll never need an excuse to go back to where it all started.

@RagingWolffe Read the first sentence of the OP.

@lastchalice You can play these games on PC: Halo MCC Halo Infinite Halo Wars 1 Gears 5 Sunset Overdrive Ryse: Son of Rome Killer Instinct Fable Anniversary and Fable 3

I know a lot has come to PlayStation 5, but there is plenty you can still only play on Xbox (talking consoles, not PC): - Halo: MCC - Halo Infinite - Halo 5 - Halo Wars 1 & 2 - Gears 2, 3, 4, 5, Tactics, Judgement - Sunset Overdrive - Ryse: Son of Rome - Killer Instinct - Blue Dragon - Lost Odyssey - Fable 1, 2 & 3 …and endless BC titles from Dead Space 2 to Orange Box to FF13 to Fallout 3 & NV. It’s far from nothing.

@BlameItOnRyen What problems do you foresee?

@lastchalice We shall see, I remain VERY cautiously optimistic

@BlameItOnRyen I totally understand that dude. My honest opinion is that I think this remake will be great if you don’t mind sprint and reused Infinite assets. That will be make or break it for people.

I’m worried the Remake is gonna be trash. I know people hold 2, etc in higher regard, but for me, it was walking by that Halo 1 box at Best Buy 35 times a day until I finally gave in and bought an Xbox, it became my main platform for nearly two decades. Halo 1 is the one I hold most dear.

@A1phaChino_ Read the first sentence of the OP.

@lastchalice Halo MCC is on Steam. Not an Xbox Exclusive

They fumbled their own story so many times they’re just betting on safe stories we already love. Halo CE needs the most TLC so at least I can *kind of* understand the value of a remake, but if you think you’re gonna improve Halo 2 and 3 you’re clinically insane.

@xShephardx It’s obviously all opinion, but I will say I found Ninja Gaiden 4 to be FAR below a 10.

First he gives Ninja Gaiden 4 a 10/10 now he gives Pragmata a 9.5/10 Neither of those games are that good imo but you do you

@x7ohnny Give me your thoughts, good or bad!

@lastchalice I'm downloading it as we speak 🤩

Funny story, i never played Halo Infinite campaign... Should i reconsider? #halo #xbox

@AdamAvalos_RE A lot of people love the Horizon games. Horizon: Zero Dawn is the first. I played and beat them both. They are good, but weren’t really for me.

@lastchalice Any suggestions on what to play after Yotei?

I finished Crimson Desert. I can honestly say that in my 30+ years of gaming I have never been more confused, happy and downright frustrated all at the same time than when playing Crimson Desert. Let’s get the good stuff out of the way first. A game doesn’t sell five million copies unless it does something right and there are areas where this game truly shines. - Feels like a next gen experience - Has insane draw distances - Talented voice acting - Beautiful environments - Extremely high quality graphics - Wonderful exploration - Very impressive scale/enemy count - Great fight choreography/Action scenes - Endless systems and things to do - A solid combat system - 300+ hours of content - High quality soundtrack There is much to love about Crimson Desert. Unlike many, I was drawn into the game from hour one and was compelled to give it my complete attention so that I could properly address how wrong many of the critics were. Unfortunately, as my experience went on I only found myself agreeing more and more. The negatives: - The worst boss fights I’ve ever experienced - A truly awful story - Boring and forgettable characters - Puzzles that are not fun - Poorly designed missions - A lack of any direction for the entire product Crimson Desert does everything in its power to make sure that for every fun moment you have there is an equally frustrating one right around the corner to match it. Let me give you just one example that represents dozens of other annoying moments consistently sprinkled throughout the game. I was required to summon my dragon to destroy a shield around a base. I then went inside the base, destroyed energy depots, fought soldiers, climbed to the top and then engaged in a boss fight. It was only then that it was made clear to me that there was literally no way to defeat this boss unless I was carrying arrows or had a specific skill unlocked. I had neither. I then had to leave the boss fight and redo the entire dragon and base infiltration mission again after buying arrows. As soon as this mission was completed, the next mission began and also required the dragon. I go to summon my dragon to find out that it’s on a 45 minute timer and I have to wait to move forward. This entire headache happens ad nauseam throughout Crimson Desert as it throws one poorly designed idea or mission at you after another. It’s exhausting. I like many love Souls games, but am also fatigued by them and enjoy different styles of combat and bosses. I’ve solo’d plenty of Souls games hardest bosses. Crimson Desert has unquestionably the worst designed mechanics and general fun factor of bosses of any game I’ve ever played. It’s not difficulty either, just eat meat the entire battle and you’ll never die. As far as the story is concerned, I originally thought the criticism was a little much. It’s clear the writing is solid at each individual step of the experience, so how could it not be at least decent? Well, it turns out that if one chapter of your story has zero connective tissue to the next and is constantly loaded with uninspired dialog it ultimately results in bad writing, and let me tell you, it’s BAD. Nothing makes any sense and it almost always feels like different unrelated segments sewn together. I would love to go on for another 18 paragraphs, but for the first time ever I’m going to hit the twitter character limit, so I’ll just summarize with this: Crimson Desert has many high quality aspects that will impress. There’s a certain charm that draws you in even when you can see the cracks in the armor. That is what makes my final takeaway so depressing. There’s a complete lack of direction and vision that seeps into every aspect of the experience resulting in something quite forgettable. What I admire most is that it dared to be different, it doesn’t feel like other games, but that can’t save it from falling incredibly short of greatness. I would not recommend Crimson Desert.

@CecchinatoBrian I disagree, even following the story only it’s a mixed bag and makes little sense.

@lastchalice I get where you’re coming from about the story. However, it’s actually pretty straightforward. The problem we CDs story is that there’s so much to pull you in a different direction at every turn, you get lost and forget that the narrative is still a thing.

@Memetic_Hazard_ Console warring has broken your brain. I’m simply talking about the games. That’s all. I will also be playing them on a PS5.

@lastchalice OK. But they are coming to PlayStation now, so, bragging about this is pointless.

I genuinely prefer the types of games Microsoft publishes over Sony’s.

@AdamAvalos_RE Those are incredible games.

@lastchalice I was an Xbox guy for many years, but I got tired of the non-exclusive I just bought a PlayStation five Pro, and so far I played the Spider-Man franchise, the God of war franchise and then now I’m starting ghost of Tsushima

@LoneWolfGamer06 Agreed dude. Indiana Jones was phenomenal. Blew me away.

@lastchalice Halo, Gears, & Fable were all some of my fav games when I owned a 360. Also, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is seriously one of my fav games then gen. I enjoyed playing it last yr on my PS5

@AdamAvalos_RE I have no desire or benefit to “hate” on Crimson Desert (I got a lot of joy out of it) but I was frustrated more often than not, and felt my time could have been spent better elsewhere.

@lastchalice I have yet to play it. I’m deciding whether I want to devote this much time to a game like this. But from what it sounds like the story is so so, but it’s a technical Marvel.

@aarongreenberg @MrboomstickXL

Great Games. Return of Xbox. Future of Play.