PixlBit

Turns out Sunset Overdrive and Assassin's Creed Origins do not work on my PC. I've already been refunded for Origins (well, received an email saying I'd see the charge removed or a credit in my bank account within 14 business days) and have been sent an email regarding my refund request for Sunset Overdrive.

Origins would start for a few seconds, get to the game logo, then crash. It's actually a good thing I checked, cause I meant to download Odyssey anyway. Ususally, I'd try a couple workarounds with my laptop before calling it quits, but after three error messages sent to Ubisoft/Uplay, the game opened in a small window in the top left corner of my laptop and hell no, I'm not playing something known for being a good-looking game that way. So kind of a bummer, but maybe I can use the funds for some other game when they come back to me. 

Sunset Overdrive is one I'm very disappointed did not work, because I have wanted to play it ever since I met Insomniac's PR team in 2014 while they were working on the game. I've given them my money with Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank, but I specifically remember them saying they wanted to work with Microsoft on this project because microsoft would let them fully own the IP, unlike other games where Insomniac makes the games, but Sony more or less owns the license to them, like Spyro. 

The fixes mentioned online for SO were mostly to disable your antivirus or add Steam as an exception to the antivirus, which I did and ... yeah, it still said running, then syncing, then ... nothing. After trying that a bunch of times, it still says I've only "played" the game for a minute, which is fine by me, since Steam's refund policy is you can only get refunds on games you've played for less than two hours and within two weeks of your purchase (these two games were bought on December 23). 

I'm sad these didn't work, but now I'll have cash to spend on other games or pocket again. 

Anyway, I beat the first Crash Bandicoot game in the N. Sane Trilogy last night and have beaten 10 or 11 levels in Crash 2. I thought about it when a friend on Facebook mentioned she was playing with her younger family.

Overall, I really liked the first game, but man did the hit boxes and camera angles cause issues.

There were parts of the game that would have been excellent 2D platforming sections, had the developers not decided the thrill of 3D was being able to fall off a platform by accidentally moving toward the camera. This was also a problem with the final boss, where I was usually fine as long as I stayed along a left-right axis in the middle, but would fall off the platform trying to dodge his attacks. 

I was on The High Road before continuing to the end last night, and I know lots of people think of that as one of the hardest levels, but those people don't cheat like I do and just run on the ropes. Yeah, you have to be pretty specific about your movement inputs to use that trick initially, but it's not bad once you're on the ropes and there are enough checkpoints I didn't mind too much. For my money, the hardest levels were Slippery Climb, which had intensely specific timing and Fumbling in the Dark, to which I responded "What do you think I've already been doing with these forward-facing levels?!" 

Like I said though, despite these frustrations, a lot of the levels were a fun challenge and I definitely felt Crash when he'd wipe his brow after a couple levels and go "phew." I was laughing cause there were more than a couple ocassions where I pretty much did the same. 

Anyway, one good thing about my Steam games crashing is it's prompted me to launch every other item I recently purchased to check that it works and so far everything is good to go. GRIS and Iris.Fall seem like they'll be fun to play and review and I'm looking forward to replaying Sands of Time, getting past the first boss in DuckTales Remastered (yeah, I was mostly checking that it works, so I wasn't paying too close attention) and playing some of my PlayStation games as well. 

Hope you're all having as good a gaming holiday as I am.