Unexpected Update

My adventure with circa 2011 Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher 2 has drawn to a close.  I forgot how short that game feels when compared with the enormity of the third game (30 hour games just feel so short any more...go ahead and start thinking about all those debates about how long games should be).  All-in-all, I have always enjoyed the second game despite its clunky (obnoxiously so) combat.  Something I've found that I'm really good at in games that I've played through about a jillion times is somehow messing up outcomes--I got Miranda killed in a ME3 re-play and in TW2 I managed to miss an entire part of a questline in Vergen (which I realized...and then was annoyed, so went back and replayed like an hour plus of content).  So, now I'm done with TW2 and I was almost giddy when installing and starting up The Witcher 3 for the first time (*on my "new" computer--it's not so new now, but this is the first time I've played TW3 on it.  I have literally played through TW3 for an embarrassing amount of time that I won't state here).  It felt almost like stepping into Geralt's warm bath!  I had forgotten how beautiful everything is in TW3.

I had barely started Geralt's 8th (or 9th? or 10th?...yeah, I love TW3) adventure when I noticed multiple pending updates to games in my Steam library.  The one that got me the most excited was the release of the second episode for the silly, British video-editing indie game, Not For Broadcast (if you're not familiar with NFB, you can read my earlier review here).  The poor devs of NFB (like many other people in varying professions around the globe) have been trying to film and release the second part of the game in the midst of the ongoing pandemic.  They had issued a statement that said that the second installment of the early-access game would be out in January--a timeline that must've been pretty difficult considering the stricter lockdowns that seem to have been put into place in parts of Europe.  So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the second episode was out.

Upon booting up NFB, I was greeted with a welcome message that stated that my old saves might not be good anymore.  It had been quite awhile since I had played, so I decided that starting up a new game would probably be a good way to shake off the rust.  The welcome message had also boasted of new additions to the game that would be worth re-playing to check out--there are many new options for advertisements (the adverts--as the Brits call them--are hilarious) and I got the feeling that some of them had been reworked.  Another notable change is to the interference controls--before, you would have to steer a small dot through a mini-obstacle course while simultaneously monitoring the newscast.  It could be a bit challenging, but it wasn't generally too difficult.  The new interference system is more challenging--you have to use the middle mouse button and move your mouse to control the height and depth of "waves" which also move.  It is definitely more difficult than the previous version.

Replaying NFB has also made certain parts of the game seem...more relatable.  At a certain point the story in the game veers toward the bizarre as Britain winds up in lockdown.  They're not locked down due to a pandemic, but it felt much more relatable than it did the first time I played the game.  Part of the dialogue has also been reworked in the lockdown portion of the story to feel very much akin to our current situation (stay safe Brits!  I know things have been much stricter there)--there are jokes about making your own PPE (although the PPE they're referencing has nothing to do with preventing a virus from spreading).

There are several other notable additions--at the end of each day you see a screen that shows your grade on each segment, but now they've also added more details, like how much money you've earned (I believe I moved from "selling a kidney" to "broke ass poor").  It seems like they've removed the option to purchase items for the news studio (no great loss there).  The screen also includes information on changing attitudes from different groups--the Advance, your family, the rebellious rich....to name a few (I think that screen could use some more detail and explanation).  They've also changed up the sequencing in the story--before, you were offered the option to play the retro, charity- fundraising segment like midway through the story--and now, I haven't had it pop-up as an option (although, it might now be positioned between the first and second episodes).

If you're looking for something quirky to play, Not For Broadcast offers a silly story filled with oddly enjoyable multi-tasking challenges.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the second episode has in store--did the Snugglehugs apocalypse happen?  Has the lockdown ended?  Are there more horrible high school musical performances to suffer through?  I can't wait to find out!